Lesson I



Back to contents Onto lesson two


Reading

The Reading Sections This first section in each lesson contains one or more fairly short passages for you to read and translate. At the moment they are not very complicated, but leter on you might find it easier to write down your translations. The vocabulary section gives most of the words you need to understand, but sometimes some simple ones, similar to English, say, will be left out to get you used to making sensible guesses.
After the vocabulary you will find the Translation section, which contains a full translation of the reading for you to compare yours with. It also points out some points of grammar that are maybe too advanced or not shown in enough detail for the lesson's grammar section.

Marcus puer est. Marcus amat puellam quidam. Haec puella pulcherrima est.
Sed haec puella Marcum non amat.

That's all we will do in this first lesson. It's quite short, and the translation is somewhat ridiculous, but have a go. Do see if you can guess maybe one or two of the words (like Marcus, maybe, or non) before tackling the whole thing. Good luck!

Vocabulary

The vocabulary sections contain the new words you need to understand each passage. (It does help if you try and learn most of these sections :)

Latin English
Marcus, Marcum Marcus (same as modern 'Mark')
puer (a or the) boy (probably 'a' here)
est (he, she or it) is
amat (he, she or it) loves
puella, puellam (a or the) girl
quidam a certain (here referring to 'puellam')
haec this
pulcherrima most beautiful
sed but
non not (here, with amat = 'does not love')

Translation

The translation sectionsprovide a full translation of the reading passage, examing possible points of difficulty or things you should know.
There are two lines underneath each of the original Latin; the first of these is a literal translation of the Latin above it, the second a (fairly) good English translation. You should try and use these aids to familiarise yourself with the structure and constructions of the Latin.

Marcus puer est. Marcus amat puellam quidam. Haec puella pulcherrima est.
Marcus a boy is. Marcus loves girl a certain. This girl most beautiful is.
Marcus is a boy. Marcus loves a certain girl. This girl is most beautiful.

Sed haec puella Marcum non amat.
But this girl Marcus loves not.
But this girl does not love Marcus.

There isn't much to say about this translation; take a while to look at the word order, and see how the literal translation compares to the English.

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