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Latin module

The Latin module covers every declension, every adjective pattern, the full classical verb system, twenty-four pronouns, twenty-nine numerals, and a closed-class lexicon of prepositions, conjunctions, particles, adverbs, and indefinite pronouns. The sentence parser draws on the whole catalogue — more than 2,000 lemmas, the great majority of them at CEFR A1–B1. Vocabulary is chosen at the level of an introductory course, so sentences from a beginner's textbook — Ørberg's Familia Romana, Wheelock — usually parse, though not every word will be in the catalogue.

The ways to study it are described under Ways to study in the User Guide. This guide describes what is in the course, word type by word type.

Every form is stored with its macrons. Typed answers are checked leniently on macrons by default; you can make the check strict (see Macron-accurate checking).

How the app writes Latin

The app follows the conventions of the classroom rather than those of any one dictionary, so that what you see on screen matches what a teacher writes on the board. The choices, in one place:

  • The verb's headword follows the interface language. In the Dutch interface a verb is named by its infinitive (amāre), as Dutch schools do; in the English and Spanish interfaces by its first person singular (amō), as English and Spanish grammars do. The citation line under the title gives the principal parts in the same order — amō, amāre, amāvī, amātum or amāre, amō, amāvī, amātum — with the supine in -um as the fourth part and, for a deponent, the perfect with sum (sequor, sequī, secūtus sum).
  • Tense and mood names are Latin, in every interface: Praesens, Imperfectum, Futurum, Perfectum, Plusquamperfectum, Futurum Exactum, and the moods Indicativus, Coniunctivus, Imperativus. The names are written without macrons; the forms always with them.
  • Macrons follow the Oxford Latin Dictionary and Ørberg's Familia Romana, including the hidden lengths before ns and nf (mōns, cōnsul, īnferus).
  • Cases come in the order nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, vocative — the order of the Dutch and German school grammars. British and American books order them nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative; the forms are the same. The vocative is shown in every table.
  • Conjugation rows are labelled by person and number — 1 sg, 2 sg, 3 sg, 1 pl, 2 pl, 3 pl — never by a pronoun, since Latin normally leaves the subject pronoun out.
  • Degrees of comparison are formed only for adjectives that have them in classical Latin. Adjectives in -eus, -ius, -uus (aureus, ēgregius, arduus), the possessives (meus, noster) and the ordinals (prīmus, secundus) form none; the irregular degrees (bonus — melior — optimus) are stored, not derived.

What's in the Latin module

Latin module

Latin module

Latin module

Each part of speech has its own tile on Self Study, and each tile opens a hub with the same Theory / Study / Practice sections as the rest of the app. In a hub the rows carry short names (Select groups, Reference, Meaning); the screens they open name the word type (Select noun groups, Noun reference, Noun meaning), and this guide names the row when it tells you what to tap and the screen when it describes the screen. The group selection is a card of its own at the top of Practice, above the drills.

  • Nouns — over 650 nouns across the five declensions, plus two irregular nouns. Pick declensions, read the paradigms, browse the nouns, then drill production and recognition. See Declensions.
  • Adjectives — over 350 adjectives across the five textbook patterns, with comparative and superlative forms and the agreement drill.
  • Verbs — over 600 verbs across the conjugations, with the indicative, subjunctive and imperative, active and passive, plus participles, infinitives, gerundive and supine.
  • Pronouns — twenty-four pronouns (personal, reflexive, demonstrative, intensive, relative, interrogative and indefinite), each with its own stored paradigm.
  • Numerals — twenty-nine numerals.
  • Prepositions, Adverbs, Other Vocabulary (conjunctions, interjections and a few other small words) and Phrases — the smaller word classes, each with its own hub.

Alongside the hubs, several features are specific to Latin:

  • Sentence parser — enter a Latin sentence and every word is parsed.
  • Reading texts — ten curated passages, from a beginner's story to Caesar and Cicero, with every word tappable.
  • Macron-accurate checking — how macrons are graded, and how to type them.
  • Latin and speech — how Latin is read aloud.

Level schemes

The Latin course has two level schemes. Choose one under Level schemes in the course tab of Settings (see Level schemes in the User Guide). Both show translations and leave the app language as it is.

  • Gymnasium — the standard scheme: one level per year of the Dutch gymnasium, Klas 1 to Klas 6, with the grammar in the usual school order.
  • Mature — for an adult working alone: four stages, Beginner to Advanced. The grammar comes earlier, in the order of the usual adult courses: all declensions and the indicative first, then the subjunctive and the participle constructions, then the rare forms.