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Tips for getting started with Latin

  1. Decide what you're optimising for. If you're following a textbook (Wheelock, LLPSI), there is no per-chapter filter: the catalogue carries no chapter tags. Instead, scope your pools by declension, adjective pattern and verb group, and use Select tenses to match what the chapter has introduced. Read the chapter in your textbook, then drill the same material here until it is automatic. If you're sight-reading classical texts, make the Sentence parser your main entry point and let what you look up drive your study.

  2. First declension first. Open Self Study → Nouns → Select noun groups and select the 1st declension only (141 nouns). Set Questions per session to 20 in Settings → General → Study. Before drilling, read the tables in Declension paradigms. Then run a few Decline the noun sessions in Type mode until the endings come without thinking.

  3. Add the 2nd declension once the 1st feels solid. The masculine -us, neuter -um and masculine -er nouns are the next chunk. Together the first two declensions give you 313 nouns, which is where every textbook starts.

  4. Drill in both directions. Decline the noun takes you from the dictionary form to a requested case and number. Recognise the form goes the other way: from an inflected form to its case and number. The two drills train different skills, so use both.

  5. Start verbs with the 1st conjugation present. Open Self Study → Verbs. In Select verb groups choose only 1st conjugation (-āre), and in Select tenses choose only Praesens. Drill Produce the conjugation until amō, amās, amat, amāmus, amātis, amant is automatic.

  6. Adjectives only after declensions are reliable. Adjective agreement assumes you already know which case, number and gender each noun form is. Read Adjective patterns, then practise the forms. The Agreement drill combines everything, so use it once you can produce both noun and adjective forms on their own.

  7. Use the Sentence parser as your reading assistant. Whenever you meet Latin outside the app (Caesar, Vergil, the Vulgate, your homework), open Self Study → Look up, switch to Sentence, paste the line and tap Parse. Tap any word to see its analysis and open its full entry. It is the quickest way to check your reading.

  8. Try the reading texts. Open Self Study → Texts. Start with Villa in silva (difficulty 1) or the Pater Noster (difficulty 2). Every word is tappable, and the translation toggle and EN/NL picker let you check yourself as you go.

  9. Want a guided route? The Grammar lessons take you through the same ground in order: twelve lessons in four modules, from the first declensions and the verb's present and perfect systems to the passive, pronouns, participles and the subjunctive. Find them on the Home screen.