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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6234 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 9 of 15 29 July 2010 at 6:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I normally use sample sentences. I find that far more effective than learning a set of endings, because it's a quicker comparison when I come across the word: I don't have to get the ending and compare it to a list, I can just compare the words directly. Then again, the first declensions I learned were in Irish, which doesn't have a nice set of endings like Latin.
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| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5093 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 10 of 15 30 July 2010 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, mostly: Nom. -a -ae Gen. -ae -arum Dat. -ae -is Acc. -am -as Abl. -a -is Nom. -us -i Gen. -i -orum Dat. -o -is Acc. -um -os Abl. -o -is 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5122 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 11 of 15 30 July 2010 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
Dead languages never were my favorite :\ Edited by johntm93 on 30 July 2010 at 7:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5093 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 12 of 15 30 July 2010 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
No problem, I am a trained teacher for Latin, so I should know the declensions :-). Maybe some words about the problem of renegade: I know that what I recommend is not fashionable or trendy, but I learned these things by simple drill, and it was a very effective "method". Don't learn the endings alone, but always learn them with a word: We were drilled to learn dominus domini domino dominum (domine) domino domini dominorum dominis dominos (domini) dominis and so on. There are not really so many different endings, it is a rather simple pattern, as soon as you have had a deeper look at it, or two, and in fact it is not so hard to memorize this stuff the way I just mentioned. Is it necessary? I think so, as Latin does not only have a lot of inflection, but does also heavily rely on it. Just as in Russian the word order is kind of free (not completey, of course), and often your only way to understand the meaning are the endings. Investing some days for this kind of stuff makes life much easier, and if you don't learn it you'll never get far. Couldn't you learn it by some kind of "immersion"? Well, learning it before immersing is certainly much faster- and easier. Just my opinion and experience, choose whatever you expect to work for you. Edited by lingoleng on 30 July 2010 at 8:46pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| zyz Newbie United States Joined 5131 days ago 19 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek, Sanskrit | Message 13 of 15 30 July 2010 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I had a sort of goofy idea, not sure whether it would actually help at all with reading
comprehension, but thought I'd share it anyways. Since you already have the Greek and Sanskrit noun declensions down, maybe try learning the Latin with reference to them? e.g. general paradigm for third declension: Nom sing: -s, as in both others Acc sing: -em, like Sanskrit -am Gen sing: -is, like Greek -os and Sanskrit -as Dat sign: -ī, like Greek -i and Sanskrit -e Abl sing: -e, like Sanskrit instr. -ā Nom/acc pl: -ēs, like Sanskrit -as and Greek -es and -as Gen pl: -um, like Greek -ōn and Sanskrit -ām Dat/abl pl: -ibus, like Sanskrit -bhyas Edited by zyz on 30 July 2010 at 9:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| renegade5005 Triglot Newbie United States xanga.com/philoaleth Joined 5128 days ago 18 posts - 21 votes Speaks: Persian, English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Modern Hebrew, Arabic (Levantine), French, Tzeltal, Arabic (classical), Sanskrit, Ancient Greek | Message 14 of 15 30 July 2010 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hm this is a great idea actually. I'll write all the endings (except the Dual for greek and sanskrit of course) besides one another and learn them in this way. Thank you very much! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PaulLambeth Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5168 days ago 244 posts - 315 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic, Hindi, Irish | Message 15 of 15 31 July 2010 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I still have to think about Icelandic's pattern but I ensure I have the definite article (which most declensions are variants of) table to hand at all times. That is, an A4 sheet of paper on my bedroom wall and a post-it note in each textbook with just a grid split into two - singular and plural - with masculine/feminine/neutral against nominative/accusative/dative/genitive on each bit. (However, the nouns also decline, and I have just gotten used to that with only one table to look at occasionally.)
Good luck, however you choose to memorise them in Latin. They're a bugger to learn but to me it makes the language feel richer when I'm writing or saying it, supposing I get them right. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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