Language information
Latin alphabet
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Many
languages supplement the basic Latin alphabet with a variety of accented
letters:
These accented letters can have a number of different functions:
- Modifying the
pronunciation of a letter
- Indicating
where the stress should fall in a word
- Indicating
emphasis in a sentence
- Indicating
pitch or intonation of a word or syllable
- Indicating
vowel length
- Visually
distinguishing homophones
Ligatures (two
or three letters joined together)
These are used in a number of languages
including French, German, Icelandic, Croatian and Dutch:
Grammar
In Latin the syntactic role of a word is expressed by declension generating
a sentence that does not depend on word order.
In Latin there is no indefinite article or definite article.
On the noun tables there are usually 5 (sometimes 7) cases:
- Nominative: indicates the subject of the
sentence, or a predicate nominative.
- Vocative: case of direct address.
- Genitive: indicates possession (most of the
time).
- Dative: indicates an indirect object.
- Accusative: indicates a direct object. The
accusative may also indicate the extent of time or space.
- Ablative:
-
the
object of a preposition: He is inside the palace.
-
time:
At the tenth hour he died.
-
means:
He yelled with a great voice.
-
agent
of a passive verb: The cookie was thrown by Cornelia across the room.
- Locative: used to describe the location of
something.
There are 5
declensions. Most nouns in the 1st are feminine, most in the 2nd are masculine
and neuter (usually distinguished by the m. -us and n. -um
endings), 3rd can either be masculine, feminine, or neuter, 4th is either
masculine or neuter, and 5th is usually feminine with a couple masculine.
All adjectives
must agree with the noun they describe in number, case and gender.
Adjectives are either
1/2nd declension or 3rd declension. In 1/2nd declensions, -a endings are
treated as feminine and are declined like 1st declension nouns, and -us
endings are treated as masculine, and -um endings are treated as neuter
and both are declined like second declension nouns. In 3rd declension
adjectives, for masculine and feminine, most of the time there are no changes
which are needed to be made to match gender as both masculine and feminine
decline the same (make note that in the ablative usually you use an -i
instead of -e as most 3rd declension adjectives are -i stemmed).
Neuter has one important difference, as nominative and accusative in all
declensions are the same (-um for 2nd etc.) and for plural nominative and
accusative have -a (all neuters in all declensions do this as well).
Adjectives can
also have comparative forms and superlative forms. Basically, you drop the
ending (-a, -us, -um) and place -ior to get the comparative or
add -issimus to make superlative form.
There are four
conjugations in Latin. A verb either falls into one of these conjugations or is
considered irregular. In Latin, a verb is defined by its person, number, tense,
mood and voice. Each verb has two stems - a present stem and a perfect stem, to
which various endings are added to make individual forms of verbs.
There are six
tenses in Latin:
- Present, indicates actions happening at the time of
speaking.
- Imperfect, describes actions which were going on over
a period of time.
- Future, used for actions which have not yet taken
place, but will do so at some point.
- Perfect, describes actions in the past which have
finished.
- Pluperfect, describes actions further in the past.
- Future Perfect, used for actions which will be
completed some time in the future
There are three
moods:
- Indicative, which states indisputable facts.
- Subjunctive, which is used for possibilities,
intentions, necessities etc.
- Imperative, used for commands.
There are two
voices:
- Active, where the verb is done by the subject.
- Passive, where the verb is done to the subject.
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