Part First ❧ Words Parts of Speech

Latin Grammar

. Latin Grammar has two parts. I. The first part treats of words: (A.) their sound; (B.) their formation; (C.) their inflection. II. The second part shows how words are joined together in sentences.

. The principal kinds of words or Parts of Speech are Nouns, Verbs, and Conjunctions.

. I. Nouns are Substantive or Adjective.

. (A.) Nouns Substantive, otherwise called Substantives, are divided, as to meaning, into Concrete and Abstract.

. (1.) Concrete Substantives denote persons or things. Concrete Substantives are subdivided into Proper Names, which denote individual persons or things: as, Cicerō, Cicero; Rōma, Rome; and Common Names, otherwise called Appellatives, which denote one or more of a class: as, homo, man; taurus, bull.

. Appellatives which denote a collection of single things are called Collectives: as, turba, crowd; exercitus, army. Appellatives which denote stuff, quantity, material, things not counted, but having measure or weight, are called Material Substantives: as, vīnum, wine; ferrum, iron; faba, horsebeans.

. (2.) Abstract Substantives denote qualities, states, conditions: as, rubor, redness; aequitās, fairness; sōlitūdō, loneliness.

. (B.) Nouns Adjective, otherwise called Adjectives, attached to substantives, describe persons or things: as, ruber, red; aequus, fair; sōlus, alone.

. Pronouns are words of universal application which serve as substitutes for nouns.

Thus, taurus, bull, names, and ruber, red, describes, particular things; but ego, I, is universally applicable to any speaker, and meus, mine, to anything belonging to any speaker.

. Adverbs are mostly cases of nouns used to denote manner, place, time or degree: as, subitō, suddenly; forās, out of doors; diū, long; valdē, mightily, very.

. Prepositions are adverbs which are used to modify as prefixes the meaning of verbs, or to define more nicely the meaning of cases: as, vocō, I call, ēvocō, I call out; ex urbe, from town.

. II. Verbs are words which denote action, including existence or condition: as, regit, he guides; est, he is; latet, he is hid.

. III. Conjunctions connect sentences, nouns, or verbs: as, et, and; sed, but.

. Interjections are cries which express feeling, and are not usually a part of the sentence: as, ā, ah; heu, alas.

. There is no Article in Latin: thus, mēnsa may denote table, a table, or the table.