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Quick!! Latin Help PLEASE!?

I have been taking Latin for the first time this year. I've maintained a high B all year, but don't actually have any remote clue what is going on. Can someone give me as brief an explanation of the different declensions and conjugations? (I know,... brief may be a bit impossible...) Even if you can point me to a website though?!

I know 1st and 2nd declension for Nouns. And I know Future tense, so that isn't a problem... but I need help, bad. I know it's alot to ask but any little bit will be a huge help!

Thanks in advance for those who do help!

Update:

Oh thanks so much!! The test is actually Tuesday next week, and it's the final...

I figured out 1st 2nd, 3rd and 4th declension which is all I need to know for nouns. I need to work on future and present a bit, but have it down pretty good.

One specific thing that I needed help on were prepositions. I don't know if you know anything about that, but if you do it'd be great. I also need to learn cases, I never understood the whole 'case' thing.

Update 2:

Well, this professor makes us sort different prepositions into the Acc. and Abl. For example, in our review she wants to to sort in, de, ex, ad, and per (those are just a few) I think I can kind of figure it out now, but that's pretty much all I needed to figure out with prepositions. You have been the BIGGEST help! You have no idea. (I knew more than I thought apparently too, just not by all the names and stuff!) Thanks, I guess I'l email you or something if I need more help... I mean if that's ok?

2 Answers

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  • LD
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Well if you know future tense then you must then know present tense, o, s, t, mus, tis, nt!

    There would be so much to tell you that if you have a test tomorrow, which I am guessing you do, it would be impossible to memorize it all. Do you have a text book? If so flip to the back of it/ Somewhere in there there should be a comprehensive grammar guide. Review that. If your book doesn't have any such grammar guide, you can buy a Latin spark chart, I don't recommend that though cause I think it is sorta lame looking, and a waste of money. But if you need all the forms in one place then it is a good source.

    If you could narrow it down to specific questions I might be able to help you more. I will check back on this in a little bit.

    . . . I found you a site!

    http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/advanced/...

    If there is anything on it you don't understand I may be able to help. Just ask.

    Try this link too, it says that it is for beginners, on the right hand side of the page that comes up it will say grammar table, you should click on that.

    http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/beginners...

    Well as for the cases just remember this:

    Nominative-subject "The girl is good at Latin" the girl is the subject she would be nominative (Puella)

    Genitive-possesive "The book of the girl is lost" in this case the book is the subject while the girl is genitive (puellae)

    Dative-indirect object "The teacher gave the book to the girl"

    In this case the girl is the direct object (puellae)

    Accusative-direct abject "The teacher gave the book to the girl" the book is the direct object (librum)

    Ablative-means "The girl went home with the book"

    In this case the book is ablative (libro)

    And for prepositions the main ones you should know are

    Ab-from, by, away

    Ad-to, towards

    Ex-out of, from

    C u m-with, when

    in-in, on

    There are more, most of the time they will accompany an ablative so watch out for that. But mainly when you see one just look it up, or if you are taking a test try to figure it out or guess it, and then work it into the sentence. Was there a specific preposition giving you problems?

    Yes email is fine, you can just do it via yahoo answers preset up system, if I don't hear from you good luck on your test!

  • 1 decade ago

    I would start by knowing the declensions.

    This website serves as good reference if you want to review the declension endings:

    http://www.tabney.com/nouns1.html

    A few things to remember that might escape you:

    1. Remember the Neuter Law: if the noun is neuter, it will ALWAYS be the same in both nominative and accusative cases, both singular and plural.

    2. 3rd declension noun groups can get pretty tricky. There is a very neat although not very known system to help you learn these without as much confusion, I uploaded it as a Word document to MediaFire so you could access it just in case: http://www.mediafire.com/?mlolwnxtyz5

    3. And just in case you forgot your cases and how to use them, here's a reference to one of my responses: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=An1yk...

    As for the verb conjugations, this PDF file might be of use:

    http://www.gettingstartedwithlatin.com/docs/compar...

    Here's a link to prepositions, since you requested them. You may not need ALL of them since you're only an elementary student. http://www.informalmusic.com/latinsoc/prep.html

    Go through the list and pick out the ones you'll be expected to know on your exam. And read the notes at the bottom!

    I hope I was of use! Sorry about all the crazy links. If you still have any more specific questions or doubts, I would be very happy to help, especially because I know I wasn't very thorough with the formations of specific verb tenses. Just e-mail me.

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