Latine Discere–Study Guide

Study Guides

The PDF files shown below can be printed from any computer, provided you have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. You do not need the Flavius font family to run these files; the fonts are embedded.

The files can be printed to any letter-size paper, but some are designed to be printed onto business card stock, which can be obtained in bulk from office supply stores or in individual sheets from copy stores such as Kinko’s. There are ten “lessons” per page, and when you print to business card stock, each “lesson” will print on its own card. (The business card format used was Avery 5371; other brands may not fit this format.)

Nota bene: When you print from the Adobe Acrobat Reader, be sure to uncheck “Fit to page” in the printing options/properties. If you don’t, the Acrobat Reader will reduce the page for reasons of its own. Run a test print to ordinary letter-size paper to make sure the text is aligning with the business cards.

These are the PDF files:

Oxford Latin Course – Part I
Page 1–Vocabulary, Chaps. 1-7
Page 2–Grammar, Chaps. 1-5
Page 3–Grammar, Chaps. 6-7
Page 4–Grammar and vocabulary, Chaps. 8-9
Page 5–Grammar and vocabulary, Chaps. 10-11
Page 6–Grammar and vocabulary, Chaps. 12-13
Page 7–Grammar and vocabulary, Chaps. 14-16

Pronouns–Letter-size worksheet for practicing demonstrative pronouns
Vocabulary I–Vocabulary in one letter-size sheet for chaps. 1-16
Worksheet–A letter-size worksheet for practicing noun/adjective endings and verb conjugations

Oxford Latin Course – Part II
Page 8–Grammar and vocabulary, Chap. 17
Page 9–Grammar and vocabulary, Chaps. 18-19
(more to come...)

Vocabulary II–Vocabulary in one letter-size sheet for chaps. 1-33
Verb summary–A letter-size sheet summarizing indicative verb conjugations in all tenses
Verb worksheet–A letter-size worksheet for practicing indicative verb conjugations in all tenses
Cheat sheet–A letter-size summary of verb, noun, adjective and pronoun endings covered in Chaps. 1-33

Oxford Latin Course – Part III
(I am here and you are here and we are here and we are all together... As a statement of ambition if not actual hubris, my long-range goal is to come up with a programmatic way of generating a software-based Latin Scrabble dictionary. That is to say, working from standard dictionary entries, to derive every possible spelling of every possible word, with exception processing for the irregular forms. The Decliner software below is due for revision, but it is doing a substantial part of the job. No one can learn Latin as a set of algorithmic rules, but identifying those rules can be a useful way to discover ways of learning Latin. As an example, see the pronouns worksheet, which encourages you to memorize the demonstrative pronouns by mastering the base template, the 1df, 2dm and 2dn endings, then to overlay the discrepancies on top of that. This is exactly how these would be coded, maximizing time and minimizing resources.)

FlashMe!—Macintosh Flash Card Software

This software is officially unreleased and essentially undocumented, but it works fine and it's simple enough to use. It's Mac-only, alas, so you'll either have to have a Mac or find one to use it. The good news is that Phoenix College is awash in very nice G3 Macintoshes, so you should be able to find a machine without too much trouble. There's a variant of the Flavius font family imbedded in the software, so you don't need to download or install fonts to use FlashMe!

Flashme! is flash card software, that's all. In this archive there are flash card files for the vocabluary in the Oxford Latin Course, but you can make flash cards for anything you want to study. The file format is a plain text file with a carriage return at the end of every line. Within each line, everything up to the first tab character is the front of the card (which is displayed in bold text), everything after the first tab character is the back of the card (which is shown in plain text). Maximum line length, front plus tab plus back, is 80 characters. The maximum number of cards that can be used at one time is 400.

To use FlashMe!, drag and drop your flash card files on the program's icon. You can do this when you launch the software or at any later time. There is no limit on the number of files you can use, so it makes sense to keep your files small and isolated to particular topics. In the files that ship with FlashMe!, each chapter's vocabulary is a separate file; that way you can study the files one at a time for chapter tests or all at once for midterms or the final exam.

These are the controls:

The Next button takes you to the next card in the set, selected at random
The Reveal button shows you the flip side of whatever card you are looking at; you can flip back and forth repeatedly
The Forget button removes the current card from the set of cards to be shown; use this when you have mastered a particular card
The Add to problem words button adds the current card to a separate file called "Problem Words", stored in the same folder as FlashMe!. The current card is then deleted from the set of cards you're working from. When you're finished with that set, you can drop the Problem Words file on the icon to work on the words that gave you the most trouble. You can continue to append to this list day by day or throw it away when you're finished with it.

Keyboard equivalents:

Next: Return, Enter, Command-n or just n
Reveal: Command-r or just r
Forget: Command-f or just f
Add to problem words Command-a or just a

Menu commands:

Show card fronts first shows the card fronts first so you can guess or Reveal the backs
Show card backs first shows the card backs first so you can guess or Reveal the fronts
Show both fronts and backs shows either the front or the back of the card at random and you have to guess or Reveal the opposite side
Jeopardy mode uses a timer to permit hands-free use (say, while you're working out); depending on the fronts/backs menu settings, a card is flashed for three seconds, then it's opposite side is shown for three seconds. The first card will have a thick border so you can tell questions from answers.
The three screen sizes determine how much screen real-estate FlashMe! takes up; Small screen fits into the 9-inch screen of the original Macintosh; Medium screen will fit a 14-inch monitor; Immense screen takes up every available square inch on any size monitor. These controls are provided so you can scale FlashMe! to something less than the full screen of a large montor.

FlashMe! is stored in a self-extracting Stuffit archive: FlashMe.sea.

Decliner—Macintosh declension inquisition software

Decliner is noun/adjective declension quizzing software. In this archive there are files for the vocabluary in the Oxford Latin Course, and the software can only be used to study fairly regular Latin noun and adjective declensions. The file format is uncharacteristically complicated. In principle, it should be possible for software to identify a noun or adjective by its dictionary listing: Is it first, second or third declension, masculine, feminine or neuter, consonant-stemmed or i-stemmed? In practice, it's easier to give the software unambigous directions. If you want to write your own files for Decliner, email me and I'll tell you how to do it.

To use Decliner, drag and drop your vocabulary files on the program's icon. You can do this when you launch the software or at any later time. There is no limit on the number of files you can use, so it makes sense to keep your files small and isolated to particular topics. In the files that ship with Decliner, each chapter's vocabulary is a separate file; that way you can study the files one at a time for chapter tests or all at once midterms or the final exam.

Decliner declines the words in your vocabulary lists with the appropriate case endings. Adjectives are declined in all three genders. The declined forms are put into pop-up menus in random order. You are presented with a problem, e.g., "Show the accusative plural of mare, maris", and your job is to select the appropriate declined form from the pop-up menu.

These are the controls:

The Next word button takes you to the next word in the set, selected at random
The Check me compares your answer(s) to the correct answer(s) and scores your work; you can use this button repeatedly until you get the right answer(s)

Keyboard equivalents:

Next word: Return, Enter, Command-n or just n
Check me: Tab, Command-c or just c

Decliner is stored in a self-extracting Stuffit archive: Decliner.sea.



	Study Guides The PDF files shown below can be printed from any computer, provided you have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. You do not need the Flavius font family to run these files; the fonts are embedded. The files can be printed to any letter-size paper, but some are designed to be printed onto business card stock, which can be obtained in bulk from office supply stores or in individual sheets from copy stores such as Kinko’s. There are ten “lessons” per page, and when you print to business card stock, each “lesson” will print on its own card. (The business card format used was Avery 5371; other brands may not fit this format.) Nota bene: When you print from the Adobe Acrobat Reader, be sure to uncheck “Fit to page” in the printing options/properties. If you don’t, the Acrobat Reader will reduce the page for reasons of its own. Run a test print to ordinary letter-size paper to make sure the text is aligning with the business cards. These are the PDF files: Oxford Latin Course – Part I Page 1–Vocabulary, Chaps. 1-7 Page 2–Grammar, Chaps. 1-5 Page 3–Grammar, Chaps. 6-7 Page 4–Grammar and vocabulary, Chaps. 8-9 Page 5–Grammar and vocabulary, Chaps. 10-11 Page 6–Grammar and vocabulary, Chaps. 12-13 Page 7–Grammar and vocabulary, Chaps. 14-16 Pronouns–Letter-size worksheet for practicing demonstrative pronouns Vocabulary I–Vocabulary in one letter-size sheet for chaps. 1-16 Worksheet–A letter-size worksheet for practicing noun/adjective endings and verb conjugations Oxford Latin Course – Part II Page 8–Grammar and vocabulary, Chap. 17 Page 9–Grammar and vocabulary, Chaps. 18-19 (more to come...) Vocabulary II–Vocabulary in one letter-size sheet for chaps. 1-33 Verb summary–A letter-size sheet summarizing indicative verb conjugations in all tenses Verb worksheet–A letter-size worksheet for practicing indicative verb conjugations in all tenses Cheat sheet–A letter-size summary of verb, noun, adjective and pronoun endings covered in Chaps. 1-33 Oxford Latin Course – Part III (I am here and you are here and we are here and we are all together... As a statement of ambition if not actual hubris, my long-range goal is to come up with a programmatic way of generating a software-based Latin Scrabble dictionary. That is to say, working from standard dictionary entries, to derive every possible spelling of every possible word, with exception processing for the irregular forms. The Decliner software below is due for revision, but it is doing a substantial part of the job. No one can learn Latin as a set of algorithmic rules, but identifying those rules can be a useful way to discover ways of learning Latin. As an example, see the pronouns worksheet, which encourages you to memorize the demonstrative pronouns by mastering the base template, the 1df, 2dm and 2dn endings, then to overlay the discrepancies on top of that. This is exactly how these would be coded, maximizing time and minimizing resources.) FlashMe!—Macintosh Flash Card Software This software is officially unreleased and essentially undocumented, but it works fine and it's simple enough to use. It's Mac-only, alas, so you'll either have to have a Mac or find one to use it. The good news is that Phoenix College is awash in very nice G3 Macintoshes, so you should be able to find a machine without too much trouble. There's a variant of the Flavius font family imbedded in the software, so you don't need to download or install fonts to use FlashMe! Flashme! is flash card software, that's all. In this archive there are flash card files for the vocabluary in the Oxford Latin Course, but you can make flash cards for anything you want to study. The file format is a plain text file with a carriage return at the end of every line. Within each line, everything up to the first tab character is the front of the card (which is displayed in bold text), everything after the first tab character is the back of the card (which is shown in plain text). Maximum line length, front plus tab plus back, is 80 characters. The maximum number of cards that can be used at one time is 400. To use FlashMe!, drag and drop your flash card files on the program's icon. You can do this when you launch the software or at any later time. There is no limit on the number of files you can use, so it makes sense to keep your files small and isolated to particular topics. In the files that ship with FlashMe!, each chapter's vocabulary is a separate file; that way you can study the files one at a time for chapter tests or all at once for midterms or the final exam. These are the controls: The Next button takes you to the next card in the set, selected at random The Reveal button shows you the flip side of whatever card you are looking at; you can flip back and forth repeatedly The Forget button removes the current card from the set of cards to be shown; use this when you have mastered a particular card The Add to problem words button adds the current card to a separate file called "Problem Words", stored in the same folder as FlashMe!. The current card is then deleted from the set of cards you're working from. When you're finished with that set, you can drop the Problem Words file on the icon to work on the words that gave you the most trouble. You can continue to append to this list day by day or throw it away when you're finished with it. Keyboard equivalents: Next: Return, Enter, Command-n or just n Reveal: Command-r or just r Forget: Command-f or just f Add to problem words Command-a or just a Menu commands: Show card fronts first shows the card fronts first so you can guess or Reveal the backs Show card backs first shows the card backs first so you can guess or Reveal the fronts Show both fronts and backs shows either the front or the back of the card at random and you have to guess or Reveal the opposite side Jeopardy mode uses a timer to permit hands-free use (say, while you're working out); depending on the fronts/backs menu settings, a card is flashed for three seconds, then it's opposite side is shown for three seconds. The first card will have a thick border so you can tell questions from answers. The three screen sizes determine how much screen real-estate FlashMe! takes up; Small screen fits into the 9-inch screen of the original Macintosh; Medium screen will fit a 14-inch monitor; Immense screen takes up every available square inch on any size monitor. These controls are provided so you can scale FlashMe! to something less than the full screen of a large montor. FlashMe! is stored in a self-extracting Stuffit archive: FlashMe.sea. Decliner—Macintosh declension inquisition software This software is officially unreleased and essentially undocumented, but it works fine and it's simple enough to use. It's Mac-only, alas, so you'll either have to have a Mac or find one to use it. The good news is that Phoenix College is awash in very nice G3 Macintoshes, so you should be able to find a machine without too much trouble. Decliner is noun/adjective declension quizzing software. In this archive there are files for the vocabluary in the Oxford Latin Course, and the software can only be used to study fairly regular Latin noun and adjective declensions. The file format is uncharacteristically complicated. In principle, it should be possible for software to identify a noun or adjective by its dictionary listing: Is it first, second or third declension, masculine, feminine or neuter, consonant-stemmed or i-stemmed? In practice, it's easier to give the software unambigous directions. If you want to write your own files for Decliner, email me and I'll tell you how to do it. To use Decliner, drag and drop your vocabulary files on the program's icon. You can do this when you launch the software or at any later time. There is no limit on the number of files you can use, so it makes sense to keep your files small and isolated to particular topics. In the files that ship with Decliner, each chapter's vocabulary is a separate file; that way you can study the files one at a time for chapter tests or all at once midterms or the final exam. Decliner declines the words in your vocabulary lists with the appropriate case endings. Adjectives are declined in all three genders. The declined forms are put into pop-up menus in random order. You are presented with a problem, e.g., "Show the accusative plural of mare, maris", and your job is to select the appropriate declined form from the pop-up menu. These are the controls: The Next word button takes you to the next word in the set, selected at random The Check me compares your answer(s) to the correct answer(s) and scores your work; you can use this button repeatedly until you get the right answer(s) Keyboard equivalents: Next word: Return, Enter, Command-n or just n Check me: Tab, Command-c or just c Decliner is stored in a self-extracting Stuffit archive: Decliner.sea.
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