Latin for Learners: 26.11.25: The roles of Winnie the Pooh – and squirrels

A nice memory: battling my way home along the Strand in London during a wintry, rainy rush hour, I suddenly heard “Vinni-Pukh igrayet v futbol!” I looked round and there was one of my former students grinning at me. Now an international lawyer, he had studied Law and Modern Languages at university, one of those languages being Russian, which I had taught him from Beginner to A Level. Of all the things he could have said in Russian, he chose to say what had stuck in his mind: “Winnie the Pooh is playing football”, and he knew it would have stuck in my mind too, because Winnie the Pooh had been used to illustrate a lot of verbs when this now successful lawyer was about 13.

Magister Andrews’ reference to a squirrel in his recent video has a similar effect. We tend to remember ‘oddities’, something that seems out of context, unexpected in a language where we talk far more about soldiers and questionable politicians than we do about squirrels. While squirrel is not exactly the most essential word to know, what a squirrel does – walks, climbs, runs, jumps, eats - is a key concept. And, along the way, there are other features of the language that crop up.

I've put together a short video showing these points. Below is the transcript with some key information highlighted together with a translation. Let’s hope you remember the “squirrel” video in the same way that an international lawyer remembered Winnie the Pooh playing football!

[1]

Ecce! In pictūrā est sciūrus. │ Look! In the picture (there) is a squirrel.

[2]

Ubi est sciūrus? In viā est. │ Where is the squirrel? It’s on the path / in the street.

[3]

Ubi est sciūrus? Sciūrus in silvā est. │ Where is the squirrel? The squirrel is in the forest.

[4]

Quō colōre est hic sciūrus? │ What colour is this squirrel?

Rūfus est. │ It’s red.

[5]

Quō colōre est ille sciūrus? │ What colour is that squirrel?

Cinerēus est. │ It’s grey.

[6] Salvē, sciūre! / Salvē, ō sciūre! │ Hello, squirrel!

[7] Sciūrus ambulat. │ The squirrel is walking.

[8] Sciūrus in arbore sedet. │ The squirrel is sitting in a tree.

[9] Sciūrus in arborem ascendit. │ The squirrel is climbing (into) the tree.

[10] Sciūrus currit. │ The squirrel is running.

[11] Sciūrus salit. │ The squirrel is jumping.

[12] Sciūrus fugit. │ The squirrel is running away.

[13]

Quid est? │ What is it?

Est nux. │ It’s a nut.

[14] Sciūrus nucem edit. │ The squirrel is eating a nut.

[15] Ecce! Duo sciūrī nucēs edunt. │ Look! Two squirrels are eating nuts.

You can ‘take away’ as much or as little as you want, but here are a few that I think really matter at the early stages:

(1)

[i] hic (masculine) / haec (feminine) / hoc (neuter): this; hic sciūrus │ this squirrel

[ii] ille (masculine) / illa (feminine) / illud (neuter): that; ille sciūrus │ that squirrel

These words can have different functions depending upon context but here they act as demonstratives i.e. pointing to someone / something.

(2)

[i] When a verb ends in -t, it indicates ‘(s)/he, it does / is doing something’; sciūrus currit │ the squirrel is running

[ii] When a verb ends in -nt, it indicates ‘they (are) do(ing) something’; duo sciūrī edunt │ two squirrels are eating

(3)

Nouns change their endings depending on what function they perform in a sentence

via: path > in viā: on a path

silva: forest > in silvā: in a forest

arbor: tree > in arbore: in a tree

sciūrus in arborem ascendit > the squirrel is climbing up (literally: into) a tree

nux: nut

> sciūrus nucem edit │ the squirrel is eating a nut

> duo sciūrī nucēs edunt │ two squirrels are eating nuts

Getting to grips with noun endings won’t happen overnight; it takes considerable time, but the endings that nouns take are not random, and posts in the group deal extensively with all the forms that a noun can have and the way in which nouns are grouped.

(4) adjectives; two were used to refer to colour

cinerēus: ash-coloured; grey

rūfus: red; also used to refer to people with red hair

All files in the group that discuss colour:

[i] 07.03.24: colour adjectives

https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/permalink/479628014648472

[ii] 07.03.24: Quō colōre est?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/permalink/479627847981822/

[iii] 07.03.24: describing colours

https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/permalink/479627894648484

[iv] 07.03.24: describing eye colour

https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/permalink/479628104648463