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Macron-accurate checking

Macrons are the bars over long vowels: ā ē ī ō ū. They change meaning: rosa (nominative singular, "rose") and rosā (ablative singular, "with/by a rose") differ only in the length of the final a. The app's word lists, tables and drill answers are spelled with macrons (amō, amāre, amāvī, amātum).

How typed answers are checked

In the typed noun and adjective drills (Decline the noun and Decline the adjective, in Type mode), what counts as right depends on Strict macrons. You'll find it in Settings, on the Latin tab, under Grading. It is off by default.

  • Strict macrons off (default) — an answer that matches except for macrons counts as correct. The feedback reads Correct — watch the macron and shows the expected form, so rosis for rosīs scores as right and you see where the long vowel goes. This check also ignores capitals.
  • Strict macrons on — the answer must match exactly, macrons included. Rosis for rosīs is marked Not quite and counts as wrong, and the feedback shows the expected form.

Pick mode is unaffected: the options already carry their macrons, so you are right only if you choose the right one.

Produce the conjugation (the verb drill) doesn't use this setting. There, an answer that differs only in macrons is always accepted. The feedback shows Accent: followed by the correct form.

Typing macrons

  • iPhone and iPad — touch and hold a vowel key on the keyboard, then slide to the vowel with the bar (ā ē ī ō ū) and let go.
  • Mac — press and hold a vowel key. A menu of accented letters appears. Choose the one with the bar with the mouse or by typing the number shown under it. If you type a lot of Latin, the ABC – Extended input source (System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources) lets you type Option-A and then the vowel.

The app has no macron keyboard of its own. Because the default check ignores macrons, you can practise without typing them and turn Strict macrons on when you want vowel length to count.