Dr. Edward Peters

Tamarack Christian Latin, Collins' Primer

1 feb 2026

Overview

John Collins (American, 1937-2002), A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin (Catholic University of America, 1985 or later) 451 pp.

Most Latin textbooks focus on "Classical Latin", not "Ecclesiastical". No worries, learning the nuances of Ecclesiastical Latin while using a Classical textbook (e.g., Henle or Wheelock) is not difficult. Still, among the few textbooks dealing expressly with Ecclesiastical Latin, Collins is much better than the others. The materials on this page supplement Collins with my own notes and links to some other discussions. Prominent among these is Ben Johnson's excellent Latintutorial series on Youtube (linked here by ). Note: not everything presented in Collins and/or in linked materials is explained the way I would explain it.

Other resources

Anyone using Collins should have a copy of John Dunlap, An Answer Key to A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin (Catholic University of America, 2006 or later) 168 pp. That said, beginning language students tend to think there is only one right way to translate this into that; not so. Dunlap's renditions of Collins' exercises are reliable but they are not the only way that certain words, phrases, or sentences could be put.

Latin students need not buy a printed Latin dictionary. Free on-line dictionaries such as William Whittaker's Words are excellent and nearly-free downloadable dictionaries such as SPQR are more than sufficient for beginners who want a dictionary beyond that provided in Collins. Intermediate Latin students, however, would benefit from Richard Prior & Joseph Wohlberg, 501 Latin Verbs fully conjugated in all the tenses (Barron's Educational Series, 1995 or later) 548 pp.

By the way: the terms "textbook" and "grammar" are often used interchangeably but they are not the same thing. A textbook is designed for student use and explains only the major points of grammar (esp. morphology & syntax) through frequent, usually contrived, examples. A grammar, in contrast, is designed for professionals and analyzes in detail, often in comprehensive detail, all points of grammar, morphology, and syntax and cite authentic literary passages to illustrate a point. Thus, Collins is a textbook while, say, Gildersleeve is a grammar. For more information on Latin textbooks and grammars, go here.

Quick Links

Collins Unit 1.

The bane of all language textbooks is the need to present complex and often esoteric linguistic information well before students can appreciate its importance. So, for now, just skim this material but be ready to revisit it in due course.

• Collins # 001. Pronunciation. Latin uses the same alphabet that English uses (more precisely, English uses practically the same alphabet the Romans did) and Latin morphology very closely tracks its phonology (i.e., Latin words are nearly always spelled the way they sound—unlike much of English) so students generally need only hear enough good Latin (live or recordings) in order to read, speak, and write good Latin.

Collins provides macrons and other guides to pronunciation but the vast majority of actual Latin texts do not use these marks and so memorizing them, especially early on, is of questionable value. The few times one might need pronunciation helps to proclaim Ecclesiastical Latin publicly (say, in the liturgy) prose accents/stresses will likely be supplied, as follows:

This Missal text for Good Friday service shows rubrics (printed in red) with no accent/stress marks (because, as instructions for the minister, they are read silently) while the words to be proclaimed aloud by him (printed in black) have accent/stress marks.

Responsorio absoluto, omnes surgunt; et tunc celebrans, stans ad sedile, dicit Orémus, et diaconus: Flectámus génua, et omnes, flexis genibus, per aliquod temporis spatium in silentio orant; dicto a diacono: Leváte, omnes surgunt, et celebrans dicit Orationem.

Still, over time, especially as one moves into Latin poetry, macrons and other phonetic markers will be useful so learn them as convenient.

• Collins # 002. Noun overview. Peters Nouns Basics, here. Second only to verbs, nouns lie at the heart of any language. The challenge that English speakers face is that Latin nouns require one to keep track of three things: gender, number, and case (the order of these factors is not important). One simply must be able to analyze Latin nouns in terms of their two numbers (singular and plural), three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and five major cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative) in order to understand what Latin is doing. The rewards of a case system in terms of clarity of thought and beauty of expression are, you will come to see, huge and Latin makes powerful use of it.

• Collins # 003. Declension I. (basics) & (Declension I). Easy. Memorize. Think of a declension not as mere 'group' or a 'collection' of nouns but as a ‘family’ of nouns, i.e., as a set of nouns that act very similarly among themselves and that share certain patterns with other families. There are five declensions in Latin (I, II, III, IV, and V). Some estimate that one out of five Latin nouns belongs to Declension I.

• Collins # 004. Preposition overview. (prepositional phrases). Peters Preposition Basics, here.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Declension 1. • Names of the five cases.

Case uses

Nominative, 1; Genitive, 1; Dative, 1; Accusative, 1; Ablative, 1.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 2.

• Collins # 005. Declension II, M/F. . Memorize. A few of these nouns (e.g., puer, liber, magister) end in "-er". There are a very few feminine nouns in this declension (e.g., domus, domi). Beware the oddities for declining the noun "deus, dei". I have heard it estimated that about one fifth of Latin nouns belong to the Declension II.

• Collins # 006. Esse present tense. . Memorize. Everybody starts off by teaching the vital verb “to be” but, not only is esse irregular, it does some very strange things, like acting as a "copulative" (linking verb), which in turn basically demands understanding of how adjectives work. Personally, I would have started with some simple transitive verbs but esse needs to be understood sooner than later so, fine, dive in.

• Collins # 007. Kinds of sentences. Frankly, I would skip this section, as it requires too much Latin (and English) grammar to make sense of it. For now, just remember that, in both Latin and English, there are four kinds of sentences: declarative (stating what is or is not the situation), interrogative (asking questions), imperative (giving directives or commands), and exclamatory (expressing surprise or emotion).

• Collins # 008. Direct statements. English often uses an “expletive” or “dummy” subject in sentences, but this is utterly foreign to Latin. Whereas English might say "There is a man in the church" Latin would simply say "Vir in ecclesia est", there being no Latin word for "there" in this sense. (Ha! I just did it, see? 'There being ...'). It takes time for English-speakers to stop looking for such subjects in Latin and to start remembering to add them for idiomatic English translations.

• Collins # 009. Agreement of subject-verb. & . Easy. Latin sometimes uses what looks like a singular subject with a plural verb or a plural subject with a singular verb. This might have resulted from what’s called “constructio ad sensum”, that is, taking the sense of the word rather than its pure grammatical form. “Constructio ad sensum” is rare.

• Collins # 010. Genitive of possession. (theoretical background). Easy. I discourage students from using the English genitive case (our apostrophe-'s') to render Latin genitives orally because it is impossible for the English ear to distinguish genitive singulars from nominative plurals. I have students render, say, “ecclesia Domini” as “church of the Lord” instead of “the Lord’s church”, even though the latter is correct English.

Recitatio Quotidiana

esse in present. • Declension 1 and 2 (masculine). • Names of the five cases.

Case uses

Nominative, 1; Genitive, 1; Dative, 1; Accusative, 1; Ablative, 1.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 3.

• Collins # 011. Second Declension N. . Memorize.

• Collins # 012. Esse imperfect. Memorize.

• Collins # 013. Esse future. Memorize.

• Collins # 014. Dative of the possessor. . Don't think of esse in these phrases as a form of 'to be' but rather as a form of "belong". If the assertion is short, has a form of esse in it, and has something capable of possessing the dative and something capable of being possessed in the nominative, it's probably a dative of the possessor construction.

Recitatio Quotidiana

esse present, imperfect, future • Declension 1 and 2 (masculine). • Names of the five cases.

Case uses

Nominative, 1; Genitive, 1; Dative, 2; Accusative, 1; Ablative, 1.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 4.

• Collins # 015. Adjective overview. . Peters Adjective Basics, here.

• Collins # 016. Group I & II adjectives. . If you know your Declension I and II endings you already know these adjectival endings.

• Collins # 017. Agreement of adjective-noun. . Adjectives always agree with their nouns in Gender, Number, and Case, and thus they live well. :) Also, adjectives never lie; their gender, number, and case are always immediately evident, shedding light thereby on occasional pesky nouns that disguise one of more of these points.

• Collins # 018. Nominal sentences. Latin phrases and sentences are happy to drop a present tense form of esse, as in, "Vir in ecclesia" (the man [is] in the church). But note, the mood of the dropped esse might be subjunctive (studied below): Dominus vobiscum, anyone?

• Collins # 019. Syntax questions. Optional.

Recitatio Quotidiana

esse present, imperfect, future • Declension 1 and 2 (masculine). • Names of the five cases.

Case uses

Nominative, 2; Genitive, 2; Dative, 3; Accusative, 2; Ablative, 2.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 5.

• Collins # 020. Verb overview. Peters Verb Basics, here. I would present this material differently. If one wishes to read this section, fine, but skip the discussion of "aspect" and "mood" for, important though those topics are, they can wait till one is better grounded in verbs.

• Collins # 021. Present stem system. For now, just lock in your mind that Latin has six tenses (times) in the indicative mood, three of which tenses (present, imperfect, and future) are known as "present tenses".

• Collins # 022. Conjugation I, present. Memorize. This topic occasions notes on how I suggest that students learn their paradigms.

One can, and most Latin systems do, explain finite (i.e., conjugated) verbs as a series of interchangeable letter sets (mostly infixes and suffixes) that are added to roots/stems in order to indicate the function of the verb in respect of person, number, tense, voice, mood. Such an approach, however complicated it is at times, works fine and ably highlights the linguistic foundations of Latin. Collins follows this approach although, in my view, he explains it inadequately.

But one can also approach finite Latin verbs as consisting of a base that conveys the basic concept of the verb and an ending that conveys the function of the verb is a given phrase or sentence. This approach, though not without a couple of its own complications, allows recitations of fuller sound sets that, especially with younger learners, more easily lend themselves to memorization. I use this approach with beginners and over time let them, if they want to, move to the more common approach as they advance in understanding.

• Collins # 023. Latin word order. . The order of English words in phrases and sentences is overwhelmingly, and almost always must be, subject-verb-object (SVO) while Latin is equally comfortable with subject-object-verb (SOV) and SVO and is no stranger to other sequences. Remember, in Latin, case drives syntax, not word order.

• Collins # 024. Coordination in a compound sentence. Easy.

• Collins # 025. Accusative as direct object. . Easy.

• Collins # 026. Dative as indirect object. . Note that the indirect object of a verb in English can work without a preposition but it can also work with a preposition: "Give Michael the ball" and "Give the ball to Michael" are both correct. In Latin, however, the dative never, never, NEVER takes a preposition. Ever. Also, a useful adage has it "give, offer, show, tell, look for a dative", short for "With verbs of giving, offering, showing, telling, or their correlatives, look for an indirect object in the dative case, not that one will be always be there, but it is there lots of time."

• Collins # 027. Ablative of separation. . Easy.

• Collins # 028. Compounding of verbs. Easy.

• Collins # 029. Parsing. This important skill is acquired only with practice over time.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Conjugation 1, present. • esse present, imperfect, future • Declension 1 and 2. • Names of the five cases.

Case uses

Nominative, 2; Genitive, 2; Dative, 3; Accusative, 2; Ablative, 3.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 6.

• Collins # 030. Conjugation II, present. Easy. Memorize.

• Collins # 031. Conjugation III, present. Easy. Memorize. Of the four conjugations of Latin verbs, the third conjugation is the naughty one. For now, recall that there are two main subgroups of verbs within the third conjugation known as the "o-variety" and the "io-variety".

• Collins # 032. Conjugation IV, present. Easy. Memorize.

• Collins # 033. Direct question, -ne. . Easy. The word to which interrogative particle "-ne" is attached is usually the main finite verb of the phrase or sentence. I have seen "-ne" appear as late as three or four words into a sentence (and always on the main verb) but this is rare.

• Collins # 034. Ablative of means. . Easy.

• Collins # 035. Ablative of manner. . The 'anticipatory adjective' in front of the preposition appears only when it is the lone adjective for the noun in the phrase.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Conjugations 1-4, present. • esse present, imperfect, future • Declension 1 and 2. • Names of the five cases.

Case uses

Nominative, 2; Genitive, 2; Dative, 3; Accusative, 2; Ablative, 5.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 7.

• Collins # 036. Present passive. & (background theory). Easy. Memorize. See also Verb Basics 4, above. Careful, the "-re" ending occasionally used in the 2nd person singular can look like an infinitive.

• Collins # 037. Ablative of personal agency. . Think of this as a polite variation on the ablative of means used when the 'means' is a person (God, angel, human) and so is marked by the preposition "a" (or ab/s). Animals fall into a grey zone, sometimes treated as persons, sometimes not.

• Collins # 038. Ablative with certain adjectives. . I think of this as subset of the ablative of respect (below), but that's probably just me.

Recitatio Quotidiana: Declensions 1-2; Conjugations 1-4, present; Passive voice endings.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Passive voice endings. • Conjugations 1-4, present. • esse present, imperfect, future • Declension 1 and 2. • Names of the five cases.

Case uses

Nominative, 2; Genitive, 2; Dative, 3; Accusative, 2; Ablative, 7.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 8. xxx

• Collins # 039. Conjugations I thru IV, imperfect active. . Memorize.

• Collins # 040. Conjugations I thru IV, imperfect passive. . Memorize.

• Collins # 041. Subordination. The grammatical concepts here are not difficult but they do require sorting.

(1) A simple sentence has one subject and one verb: "The dog ate my homework." A compound sentence has two (or more) subjects and verbs that are independent from each other: "The dog ate my homework and I rewrote my assignment." A complex sentence has two (or more) subjects and verbs but one subject-verb phrase (i.e., clause) is subordinate to the other clause: "Because the dog ate my homework, I rewrote my assignment." The first clause is grammatically subordinate to, and thus dependent on, the second clause.

(2) There are three main types of subordinate clauses: noun clauses, adjective clauses, and adverbial clauses. More on this later.

(3) Among adverbial clauses, Latin has four types: temporal, concessive, conditional, and causal. More on this later.

• Collins # 042. Causal clauses. . If an adverbial clause explains why the independent clause happens it is usually introduced by quia, quod, or quoniam (QQQ) and its verb is indicative. See also # 135.

• Collins # 043. Indirect statement, object clauses. The grammatical concept here is not difficult but it does require some background. There are two kinds of statements, direct and indirect. A direct statement makes an assertion: "Robert likes pizza." An indirect statement contains an assertion made by another: "Mom thinks that Robert likes pizza." The main assertion here is 'mom thinks' while the indirect assertion, 'Robert likes pizza', effectively acts as a direct object of the verb 'think'. Indirect assertions are generally introduced by quia, quod, or quoniam (trans: 'that') and its verb is typically indicative. And that Greek anticipatory accusative is cool but very rare. And see, (this is early, but look at it now).

• Collins # 044. Ellipsis. Easy.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Passive voice endings. • Conjugations 1-4, present, imperfect. • esse present, imperfect, future • Declension 1 and 2. • Names of the five cases.

Case uses

Nominative, 2; Genitive, 2; Dative, 3; Accusative, 2; Ablative, 7.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 9.

• Collins # 045. Conjugation I and II, future active. . Memorize.

• Collins # 046. Conjugation I and II, future passive. Learn.

• Collins # 047. Conjugation III and IV, future active. . Memorize.

• Collins # 048. Conjugation III and IV, future passive. Learn.

• Collins # 049. Infinitive subject. . I learned infinitives as verbs (albeit very unusual verbs with things like a gender) but the majority of grammarians regard infinitives as nouns (albeit very unusual nouns with things like tense and voice). Either approach works.

• Collins # 050. Ablative of respect. Easy.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Passive voice endings. • Conjugations 1-4, present, imperfect, future. • esse present, imperfect, future • Declension 1 and 2. • Names of the five cases.

Case uses

Nominative, 2; Genitive, 2; Dative, 3; Accusative, 2; Ablative, 8.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 10.

• Collins # 051. Perfect active system. or . It's almost as if Latin decided to have mercy on students who have had to manage a variety of endings over four conjugations to handle the three present tenses. Latin's three perfect tenses (perfect, plu-perfect, and future perfect), in contrast, use just one set of endings for each tense that works across the board for all four conjugations. The base for all three perfect tenses, moreover, is easy to find in the third principle part of the verb.

• Collins # 052. Conjugations I thru IV, perfect active. or . See also # 174, below. Easy. Memorize. Occasionally, especially in poetry, the second person forms of the perfect tense drop "-vi-" from within the form, resulting in an 'syncopated form' of the verb.

• Collins # 053. Relative pronoun, qui, quae, quod. . Memorize.

• Collins # 054. Use of relative pronoun. Easy, though that 'connective relative' takes some getting used to. Sample sentences, here.

• Collins # 055. Use of interrogative adjective. Easy.

Recitatio Quotidiana: Declensions 1-2; Conjugations 1-4, present, imperfect, future!; Perfect tense; Relative pronouns.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Passive voice endings. • Conjugations 1-4, present, imperfect, future. • esse present, imperfect, future • Declension 1 and 2. • Names of the five cases.

Case uses

Nominative, 2; Genitive, 2; Dative, 3; Accusative, 2; Ablative, 8.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 11.

• Collins # 056. Conjugations I thru IV, pluperfect active. here. Easy. Memorize.

• Collins # 057. Conjugations I thru IV, future perfect active. here. Easy. Memorize. Remember the "-erint" in the 3rd person plural that avoids confusion with the 3rd person plural of the perfect tense.

• Collins # 058. Ablative of cause. . One could, I suppose, think of the ablative of cause as a variation of the ablative means.

• Collins # 059. Direct quotation. Easy.

Recitatio Quotidiana: Declensions 1-2; Conjugations 1-4, perfect, plu-perfect, future-perfect tenses; Relative pronouns!.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Case uses

Nominative, 2; Genitive, 2; Dative, 3; Accusative, 2; Ablative, 9.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 12.

• Collins # 060. possum, posse, potui, –. . Memorize. Considering how predictable posse is it hardly deserves the designation "irregular".

• Collins # 061. Complementary infinitive. . Easy. Operates as does the similar English expression.

• Collins # 062. Object infinitive. Easy. Just add the "how to".

• Collins # 063. Perfect passive system. . Remember that the participle drives the tense of the phrase, not the auxiliary verb (which basically provides only the person of the verb).

• Collins # 064. Perfect passive. Easy.

• Collins # 065. Uses of perfect passive participle (PPP). Easy.

Recitatio Quotidiana: Declensions 1-2; Conjugations 1-4, perfect, plu-perfect, future-perfect tenses; posse, all tenses.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Case uses

Nominative, 2; Genitive, 2; Dative, 3; Accusative, 2; Ablative, 9.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 13.

• Collins # 066. Pluperfect passive. . Easy.

• Collins # 067. Future perfect passive. . Easy.

• Collins # 068. Ablative absolute. a/o . This section is oddly placed for one cannot fully understand the ablative absolute unless one knows all of the participles. For my participle overview, go here. Still, Latin loves the ablative absolute (whereas English generally avoids it) and Collins, using only a perfect passive participle, puts it here. So, okay.

The noun in an ablative absolute phrase appears in the ablative case as does the participle working with it and which, importantly, drives the 'tense' of the phrase. Recall that every participle is built on a verb. The preposition 'with' almost always works to get at the sense of the phrase (although good English style might suggest dropping it in your final translation). So, a NOUN and a PERFECT PASSIVE PARTICIPLE usually translates as "with the NOUN having been VERB-ED" while a NOUN and a PRESENT ACTIVE PARTICIPLE usually translates as "with the NOUN VERB-ING". By the way, the noun in an ablative absolute will almost never have anything to do with the subject of the main sentence.

• Collins # 069. Temporal clauses. . There are many more introductory words than Collins lists here. The key to using these phrases correctly is to remember that they apply to factual situations and not to speculative.

• Collins # 070. Synopsis of verb. Useful exercise but optional.

Recitatio Quotidiana: Declensions 1-2; Conjugations 1-4; posse, all tenses!.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Case uses

Nominative, 2; Genitive, 2; Dative, 3; Accusative, 2; Ablative, 10.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 14.

• Collins # 071. Declension III, M/F. . Memorize. Something approaching half of all Latin nouns belong to Declension III.

• Collins # 072. Declension III, N. . Memorize.

• Collins # 073. Genitive of description. Works as does the similar English expression.

• Collins # 074. Ablative of description. . The key here is to look for an ablative adjective accompanying an adjective noun.

• Collins # 075. Subjective & objective genitive. This construction requires some imagination but it makes sense. English cannot do this without resort to its two forms of the genitive.

• Collins # 076. Dative of dis/advantage. Easy.

• Collins # 077. Apposition. . Easy.

• Collins # 078. Concessive clauses. I learned these as "etsi...tamen" clauses. The fact that both verbs use the indicative mood makes them work as do similar English expressions.

Recitatio Quotidiana: Declensions 1-3; Conjugations 1-4.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Case uses

Nominative, 3; Genitive, 5; Dative, 5; Accusative, 2; Ablative, 11.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 15.

• Collins # 079. Declension III, M/F, i-stem. & . Memorize. These are just weird.

• Collins # 080. Declension III N, i-stem. Memorize. These are just weirder.

• Collins # 081. Partitive genitive. Easy. Works as does the similar English phrase.

• Collins # 082. Dative with certain adjectives. . Easy. Operates as does English.

• Collins # 083. Predicate accusative. . Logical but sometimes requires a second look to see what is happening.

• Collins # 084. Cognate accusative. . Easy.

Recitatio Quotidiana: Declensions 1-3; Conjugations 1-4.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Case uses

Nominative, 3; Genitive, 6; Dative, 6; Accusative, 4; Ablative, 11.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 16.

• Collins # 085. Group III adjectives. . The only thing to keep track of here is the nominative singular form that can come in one, two, or three spellings. After that, these adjectives are highly predictable.

• Collins # 086. Present active participles (PAP). . Latin loves participles and the "-nt-" infix of the PAP reminds one of the word "present". The nominative singular form ends in "-ns", almost as if it were invented for English speakers studying the nominative singular.

• Collins # 087. Use of the present active participle (PAP). Easy.

• Collins # 088. Declension IV, M/F. . List of common Fourth Declension nouns, here. Most of these nouns are masculine, common exceptions being "domus, -us" and "manus, -us".

• Collins # 089. Declension IV, N. . Seldom encountered but easy to learn.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Case uses

Nominative, 3; Genitive, 6; Dative, 6; Accusative, 4; Ablative, 11.

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 17. Ablative and Accusative of place. .

• Collins # 090. volo, velle, volui, –. . More likely "want" than "wish".

• Collins # 091. eo, ire, ivi, itus. . Usually used with a prepositional prefix attached.

• Collins # 092. Accusative of place toward. Easy.

• Collins # 093. Ablative of place where. Easy.

• Collins # 094. Ablative of place from. Easy.

• Collins # 095. Locative. & . Cool, but a bit tricky. Seldom encountered. Vatican documents frequently carry the notation "Datum Romae", i.e., "Given at Rome".

Recitatio Quotidiana

Case uses

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 18.

• Collins # 096. Future active participle. . Easy to form but harder to get used to using.

• Collins # 097. Future passive participle. . Easy to form but harder to get used to using.

• Collins # 098. Periphrastics. Scarcely distinguishable from the Greek periphrastic discussed in # 173.

• Collins # 099. Dative of personal agency. . Easy to form but harder to get used to using.

• Collins # 100. Review of participles. . Optional.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Case uses

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 19.

• Collins # 101. Declension V. . Memorize. List of common Fifth Declension nouns, here.

• Collins # 102. Imperative. (active voice). A ditty reminds students that "Dic, duc, fac, beware! Got no 'e' when it oughta be there."

• Collins # 103. Vocative. . . Easy.

• Collins # 104. Personal pronouns, I, II. . Easy. Memorize.

• Collins # 105. Double accusative. Easy. Same as English.

Note: At the conclusion of Collins Unit 19 and before beginning Unit 20 an important stage of Latin study has been reached and it is a good place to pause, review what has been learned, and make sure that the basic forms studied so far (especially declensions and indicative mood conjugations) have been mastered.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Case uses

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 20. This unit is terribly overloaded presenting as it does deponent & semi-deponent verbs and the subjunctive mood in the space of a few pages. Oh well. xxx

• Collins # 106. Deponent verbs. . These are strange verbs but understanding whence they arose helps one grasp their function. Also, rather than thinking of their participles as exceptions to the exception, think of them as largely returning to the normal function of a participle.

• Collins # 107. Semi-deponent verbs. Truly are strange verbs but there are few enough important semi-deponents to simply remember what they are (esp. audeo, fido, gaudeo, and soleo) and go on with life.

• Collins # 108. Subjunctive overview. . The subjunctive allows Latin a precision in verbs that has nearly died out in English. Coming to realize how that precision verbal works demystifies much of the subjunctive. There will be no future tenses in the subjunctive and sign words such as "ut" or "utinam" will help from time to time.

One of the most useful keys to the handling subjective is spotting when they are being used in a main clause (e.g., hortatory, potential, optative, deliberative qq) and when they are being used in a dependent clause (e.g., purpose, result, indirect qq). Note also uses related to circumstantials and conditions.

• Collins # 109. Present subjunctive, Conjugation I. (active) & (passive). If you see an 'e' in a first conjugation verb where there shouldn't be an 'e', it's subjunctive.

• Collins # 110. Direct commands/requests. (optative).

• Collins # 111. Syntax questions. Optional.

Recitatio Quotidiana

Case uses

Exercises

Ritchie

Collins Unit 21.

• Collins # 112. Present subjunctive, Conjugation II, III, IV. If you see an 'a' in a second, third, or fourth conjugation verb where there shouldn't be an 'a', it's subjunctive.

• Collins # 113. Jussive subjunctive. . Easy.

• Collins # 114. Deliberative subjunctive. . Easy.

• Collins # 115. Conditional [sentences], simple & future vivid or less vivid. . Terminology here is a jumble. Here's how I think of it: A conditional sentence has at least two clauses, a condition clause (aka, conditional), called the protasis, usually marked by a word such as 'if' or 'unless', that is grammatically (not logically, grammatically) dependent on the other clause, and a main clause, called the apodisis, usually marked by an expressed or implied 'then', that is grammatically (not logically, grammatically) independent of the other clause. Now, because every clause must have at least one finite verb, and because finite verbs must appear in moods, the issue is, what moods do the verbs in the two kinds of clauses of a conditional sentence take. The rules governing these mood choices vary with the kind of conditional clause being considered. Whew.

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Collins Unit 22.

• Collins # 116. Imperfect subjunctive. (active) (passive). Easy.

• Collins # 117. Sequence of tenses. . There is no simple way through this topic so the goal, for now, is simply to recognize when it is happening, and then why. Do remember, though, the sequence of tenses is usually logical (though not always compelling so) but it is always grammatical, as in, the choice of mood and tense is always driven by grammar, if not always by logic.

• Collins # 118. Purpose clauses. . If one has a basic grasp of sequence of tenses this topic is not difficult.

• Collins # 119. Infinitive of purpose. Operates as does the similar English expression.

• Collins # 120. Indirect commands/requests. . The subjunctive is much more common here, the infinitive being a late development.

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Top	Collins Unit 23. • Collins # 121. Sum, posse, present subjunctive. Memorize. • Collins # 122. hic, ille. (hic) & (ille). Memorize. • Collins # 123. Personal Pronoun III (is, ea, id). . Memorize. • Collins # 124. Result clauses. . Easy. • Collins # 125. Characterizing result clauses. Easy.

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Collins Unit 24.

• Collins # 126. eo, volo, present subjunctive. (volo). Easy.

• Collins # 127. Ipse, ipsa, ipsum. Memorize.

• Collins # 128. Present contrafactuals. Uses the imperfect subjunctive for both clauses. English renders the if-clause as "were ..." and the then-clause as "would ...". See also # 132

• Collins # 129. Gerundives. . This is the future passive participle so it is always an adjective. It works only in oblique cases.

• Collins # 130. Gerunds. . A neuter singular gerundive can act as noun in an oblique case and is rendered in English in the active voice. Sounds stranger than it is.

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Collins Unit 25.

• Collins # 131. Pluperfect subjunctive. (active) & (passive). Easy.

• Collins # 132. Past contrafactuals. Uses the pluperfect subjunctive for both clauses. English renders the if-clause with "had ..." and the then-clause with "would have ...". See also # 128.

• Collins # 133. Clauses of fearing. The occurrence being feared is put into the subjunctive and marked by the logically correct (just don't think about it too long) "ne" or "ut" (the latter of which, btw, I think is better rendered 'whether').

• Collins # 134. Unattainable wishes. "Utinam" is the marker here.

• Collins # 135. Quia, quod, and quoniam (QQQ) with subjunctives. Easy. See also # 042.

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Collins Unit 26.

• Collins # 136. Perfect subjunctive. (active). Use context to avoid confusing this with with future perfect indicative.

• Collins # 137. Direct questions. . Easy.

• Collins # 138. Indirect questions. . Of the three methods presented here for asking indirect questions the use of the subjunctive is most common.

• Collins # 139. Donec & dum clauses. Easy.

• Collins # 140. Interrogative pronouns. Easy, the only significant thing to remember is the nominative singular; the rest of the relative pronoun of # 053.

• Collins # 141. Adverbial Accusative. Easy but not likely to be appreciated until it is seen in context over time.

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Collins Unit 27.

• Collins # 142. Comparison of adjectives. (comparative). (superlative). Easier to recognize than to form.

• Collins # 143. Ablative of comparison. . See also 'quam'. . Easier to recognize than to form.

• Collins # 144. Ablative of degree of difference. . Easier to recognize than to form.

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Collins Unit 28.

• Collins # 145. suus; –, sui. . Memorize.

• Collins # 146. Partly irregular adjectives. Unus, -a, -um serves as the number 'one'.

• Collins # 147. Comparison of adverbs. The notes here are important.

• Collins # 148. Cum clauses. (temporal). (causal, concessive). (circumstantial). Lock in your mind the indicative with temporal applications, and the subjunctive with everything else, and you will basically have it.

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Top	Collins Unit 29. • Collins # 149. Indefinite pronouns/adjectives. The enclitics are interesting and important to note. • Collins # 150. Double dative. . Not common, but interesting when it occurs. • Collins # 151. Review of clauses. Optional.

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Collins Unit 30.

• Collins # 152. Present infinitives. Latin infinitives (like English infinitives) have two voices, active and passive. The infinitives seen up till now have been active voice only, but passives are easy to form.

• Collins # 153. Negative commands/requests. . Easy.

• Collins # 154. Indirect speech, Subject accusative with present infinitive. & & . Latin loves this structure, so note it.

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Collins Unit 31.

• Collins # 155. Perfect infinitives. Latin infinitives (like English infinitives) have three tenses (present, as found in the second principal part, a perfect, and a rare future). The infinitives seen up till now have been present tense only.

• Collins # 156. Subject accusative with perfect infinitive. . Easy.

• Collins # 157. Predicate Genitive. Easy. Sometimes called the genitive of characteristic.

• Collins # 158. Conditional relatives. Easy.

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Collins Unit 32.

• Collins # 159. Future active infinitive. The future passive infinitive is, as Collins said, very rare, but, in a nutshell, it uses the verb ire in the passive, iri, and the supine (which Collins does not explain). .

• Collins # 160. Indirect speech, Subject accusative with future infinitive. .

• Collins # 161. Indirect reflexives.

• Collins # 162. Summary of ways to express purpose.

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Collins Unit 33.

• Collins # 163. fero, ferre, tuli, latus.

• Collins # 164. Ablative of time when/within which. .

• Collins # 165. Accusative of extent of time/space. .

• Collins # 166. Ablative of duration. The ablative to express duration is not as common as the accusative of duration.

• Collins # 167. Summary of conditional clauses. (mixed conditions). Optional.

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Collins Unit 34.

• Collins # 168. Fio, fieri, –, factus sum.

• Collins # 169. Cardinal and ordinal numbers. . There are two tricks here: (a) appreciate what it means to say that all cardinal numbers (to say nothing of ordinal numbers, of course) are adjectives, but that they do not decline past the number three; and (b) realize how widely English uses numbers as names (i.e., as nouns), something impossible for the Roman mind.

• Collins # 170. Impersonal verbs.

• Collins # 171. Summary of Genitive. =

• Collins # 172. Summary of Dative. . Some other aspects of the dative include: Dative as indirect object, ; Dative with special verbs, ; Dative with compounds, ; Dative of reference, ; Dative of separation. ; Double dative and dative of purpose, ; Dative with adjectives, .

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Collins Unit 35.

• Collins # 173. Greek periphrastics. Easy. Greek periphrastics sound scary but are actually easy. What to Roman ears sounded like a "round-about way" of talking (Greek: peri-phrastic) is virtually identical to the English present (progressive) tense. Compare the one-word Latin sentence: Laudo [I praise • I am praising • I do praise] with the two-word Latin sentence Sum laudans [I am praising, lit., 'I am the praising one']. A good Roman, of course, does not want to use two words to say what could accurately be said with one, but, the Greeks used periphrastic forms, and the Greeks were pretty cool grammar-wise. See also grammar section 98.

• Collins # 174. Syncopated perfects. Syncopated verb forms shorten some longish verb forms for easier speaking. See also # 052, above. An example of syncopation is found in the medieval student drinking song Gaudeamus igitur. The second verse of Gaudeamus asks "Ubi sunt qui ante nos, in mundo fuere?" [Where are those who were in the world before us?]. The word fuere looks like, at first glance, some sort of infinitive; it's not: fuere is just a shortened form of fuerunt.

• Collins # 175. Historical present. Easy.

• Collins # 176. Cognate Ablative. Easy.

• Collins # 177. Summary of Accusative. Easy.

• Collins # 178. Summary of Ablative. Some other aspects of the ablative include: Ablative of accompaniment, ;

Ablative supine, ; Ablative of price, ; Ablative with opus and usus, ; Ablative of source/material, ; Ablative with PUFF-V deponents, .

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Staging

.

Adjective referring to part, ;

Relations of place with ABL and ACC. .

Time with ABL and ACC. .

Respect and specification. .