06.05.26: Level 1 (review); daily routine

13.03.24: Daily routine [1]; the principal parts of verbs

https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/406244435320164/

13.03.24: daily routine [2]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/406322575312350/

13.03.24: daily routine [2]

The images show what you might do …

interdiū: during the day

vespere / vesperī: in the evening

interdum: sometimes

noctū / nocte: at night

Notes

[1] to teach [i] someone [ii] something involves two accusatives:

[i] discipulōs ¦ [ii] historiam doceō: I teach [i] the students [ii] history.

[2] aeger, aegra, aegrum: sick; ill; the verb aegrōtō, aegrōtāre [1] means ‘to be ill’

[3] to invite someone to lunch, dinner etc. use ad + accusative

[4] amīcum salvēre iubeō: I greet a friend; iubeō, iubēre [2] means ‘to command’ and a lot of commanding goes on in the literature, but here the literal meaning is “I bid (my friend) to be well”; salveō, salvēre [2]: be well; healthy. It’s in English: “I bid you good day / farewell.” If you don’t want to do any bidding or commanding, you can also use the verb salūtō, salūtāre [1] (to greet), from which, of course, we have the English derivative ‘salute’.

[5] dōnum: gift

[6] fābula: you have already seen the word meaning ‘story; tale; narrative’ but the Romans also used it to refer to any dramatic performance e.g. a play.

[7] pila: ball; when you play at something, you use the ablative:

pilā lūdō

[8] cubitum eō: I go to bed. This is a good example of why not to go too far too fast. It’s an essential phrase for expressing part of your daily routine, but don’t become embroiled in the grammar: cubitum is actually one of the principal parts of the verb cubō, cubāre [1]: to lie down. This part is called the supine and involves areas of grammar that are still quite far down the road. For now, all you need to know is that it is used with verbs of motion (here eō: I go) to express purpose: I go to lie down / to sleep.

Principal parts

[1] Again, they are colour coded, and, following on from the previous post, here are two of the principal parts of each verb (all you need for now):

1st conjugation

dēambulō, dēambulāre [1]: go for a walk

dō, dare [1]: give (note: no long /ā/ in the infinitive)

invītō, invītāre [1]: invite

labōrō, labōrāre [1]: work

obsōnō, obsōnāre [1]: buy provisions

parō, parāre [1]: prepare

vīsitō, vīsitāre [1]: visit

2nd conjugation

doce¦ō, docēre [2]: teach (/e/ in the stem)

iubeō, iubēre [2]: command

placeō, placēre [2]: please

3rd conjugation

ascend¦ō, ascendere [3]: go up (no /e/ in the stem)

bibō, bibere [3]: drink

edō, edere [3]: eat

emō, emere [3]: buy

exuō, exuere [3]: take off (e.g. clothes)

lēgō, legere [3]: read

lūdō, lūdere [3]: play

quiēscō, quiēscere [3]: rest

scrībō, scrībere [3]: write

sūmō, sūmere [3]: take

But what are the red ones? See the next post! You should, however, already be able to work out what they mean.

13.03.24: Daily routine [1]; the principal parts of verbs

Talking about daily routine is useful from three perspectives:

[i] It allows you to talk more at length.

[ii] It reinforces common vocabulary.

And …

[iii] It shows you that, when reading any text in Latin, cases and - our focus here - verb conjugations, are thrown at you from all sides!

The images show you activities that you might do māne (in the morning). Have a look through them and then read the notes below.

[1] Mē lavō: I wash myself; mē is a reflexive pronoun and is used when the action is being done to oneself. English can be vague about this: “What are you doing?” “I’m washing” – by implication “myself”. French and German, however, are explicit in conveying the reflexive idea: Je me lave; ich wasche mich.

The same idea is expressed in:

• mē exerceō: I train myself (as opposed to you training gladiators)

[2] per + accusative: (here) by means of; it also has the meaning of 'through'

[3] pōculum ¦ aquae bibō: I drink a ‘glass’ ¦ of water; remember that the genitive case is used when expressing quantities. We’ll do more practice on that in a later post.

[4] librōs ¦ in sacculō ¦ pōnō: I put the books in (my) bag; this seems to contradict what was stated in an earlier post that the preposition in takes the accusative when there is movement from one place to another i.e. putting books into a bag. However, in Latin, the verb does not in itself convey any sense of movement e.g. hurrying or entering or going and so the ablative is used i.e. in which location is something placed.

• Sextus sacculum in mensā [ablative] pōnit. Sextus puts the bag on the table.

[5] The verb discedere means ‘to leave; depart’ and is normally used with the preposition ā / ab (away):

• Mercātor ab oppidō discēdit. The merchant leaves the town = The merchant goes away from the town.

The noun domus, however – and a small group of other nouns that needn’t concern us at this stage – does its own thing! It uses an ablative case without a preposition to convey “from home”:

• Domō discedō. I leave home (i.e. I leave from home / the house)

Here are two other important concepts with this particular word (and a few others):

• Galba domum properat. Galbus hurries (to) home. When going to the house / home the accusative case without a preposition is used.
• Galba domī manet. Galba is staying at home. Now, for the moment, simply learn that word domī; it is a special form which, again, is not of concern just now.

Principal parts

Here comes the “science”. It’s vital to get a grip on verbs.

The image is colour coded according to the 3 conjugations that have already been introduced. Take a look at how these verbs have been listed below:

first conjugation

• intrō, intrāre [1]: enter
• lavō, lavāre [1]: wash
• properō, properāre [1]: hurry

second conjugation

• exerceō, exercēre [2]: train; exercise

third conjugation

• bibō, bibere [3]: drink
• coquō, coquere [3]: cook (bake; boil; roast; fry)
• dēscendō, dēscendere [3]: come down; descend
• induō, induere [3]: put on (e.g. clothes)
• pōnō, pōnere [3]: put
• sūmō, sūmere [3]: take
• surgō, surgere [3]: rise (from bed); get up

How these have been listed is the beginning of what is called the principal parts of a verb.

In the next post, what this means and why it’s crucial will be explained.