Summer Assignments

Latin 400-500 Summer Assignment 2024

For all students of Latin 400-500 level courses

For a printable PDF of this assignment, click here.

“Due Date”: First day of school.

The Summer Assignment for all students preparing to take any Advanced Latin (400/500) course during the 2024-25 academic year is simply to STUDY!!!

Now, how often should each prospective Advanced Latin student study and what should he study?

Study multiple days throughout the summer, indeed throughout each week, in increments of just 15-30 minutes of fully concentrated work.

Attached are sample and template quizzes (for DNA’s, Verb Synopses and Parsing Exercises) to use for accomplishing such studying in the most productive ways possible. Indeed, ACTUAL quizzes just like these will be administered during the first week and a half of the new school year and will provide the foundational basis for each student’s first-quarter grade! Further, note that the sample quizzes already have vocabulary included; for the template quizzes, students can choose any Latin vocabulary on their own or utilize the vocabulary suggested at the end of this page.

Aside from mastering these specific quizzes, the forms and facets of Latin that are more generally expected to be known by the entering Advanced Latin student are as follows:

Goals for Student Learning

Why do we do this?

The chief goal for students seeking to learn Latin is that you either (1) have mastered the morphology and the base vocabulary of Latin; or, at the least, (2) know what exercises are necessary to accomplish this goal by doing the exercises provided.

These goals will prepare you for any Advanced Latin course.

More specifically, each oncoming Advanced Latin student should have well ensconsed in his brain the following:

Morphology

Nouns: Be able to decline the nouns in all five declensions: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th; for example:

  • 1st fem.: terra, -ae, f. = land
  • 1st masc.: nauta, -ae, m. = sailor
  • 2nd masc.: animus, -ī, m. = spirit
  • 2nd fem.: humus, -ī, f. = ground
  • 2nd neut.: bellum, -ī, n. = war
  • 3rd masc.: rēx, rēgis, m. = king
  • 3rd fem.: aetās, aetātis, f. = age
  • 3rd masc.: nōmen, nōminis, n. = name
  • 4th fem.: manus, -ūs, f. = hand
  • 4th masc.: amplexus, -ūs, m. = embrace
  • 4th neut.: genū, -ūs, n. = knee
  • 5th fem.: rēs, reī, f. = matter
  • 5th masc: diēs, diēī, m. = king

Adjectives: Be able to decline all adjectives, i.e., 1st-2nd declension adjectives (so-called -us, -a, -um or -er, -a, -um adjectives) and 3rd declension adjectives of three denominations:

  • one termination (ingēns, ingentis)
  • two termination (omnis, omne)
  • three termination (ācer, ācris, ācre)

In addition, be able to form the comparative degree and superlative degree from the lexical form of any adjective. Be further able to form the positive, comparative, and superlative degrees of adverbs from the lexical form of any adjective, for example, as follows:

1st-2nd declension: altus, -a, -um, high; altior, altius, higher, more high, rather high, too high; altissimus, -a, -um, highest, most high, very high (quam altissimus, as high as possible)

altē, highly; altius, more highly, rather highly, too highly; altissimē, most highly, very highly (quam altissimē, as highly as possible)

3rd declension adjectives: gravis, -e, heavy; gravior, gravius, heavier, more heavy, rather heavy, too heavy; gravissimus, -a, -um, heaviest, most heavy, very heavy (quam gravissimus, as heavy as possible)

graviter, heavily; gravius, more heavily, rather heavily, too heavily; gravissimē, most heavily, very heavily (quam gravissimē, as heavily as possible)

Pronouns and Demonstratives (collectively considered “demonstratives” for the purposes of doing a DNA). Be able to decline all the critical demonstrative pronouns and adjectives, such as:

  • hic, haec, hoc, this (in front of me); the latter
  • iste, ista, istud, that (in front of you)
  • ille, illa, illud, that (in front of him); the former
  • is, ea, id, this/that (an adjective of weaker identity); he/she/it(the most common form of the 3rd person pronoun)
  • quī, quae, quod, who/which; that (the relative pronoun)

Verbs: Be able to conjugate verbs of all four conjugations: I, II, III (regular stem and i-stem) and IV; for example:

1st: putō, putāre, putāvī, putātus, think

2nd: doceō, docēre, docuī, doctus, teach

3rd: legō, legere, lēgī, lēctus, read

3rd (-iō): capiō, capere, cēpī, captus, take

4th: aperiō, aperīre, aperuī, apertus, open

The five elements of a Latin verb are: Person, Number, Tense, Voice, and Mood.

  • Person: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
  • Number: Singular, Plural
  • Tense: Present, Imperfect, Future (the Present System); Perfect, Pluperfect, Future Perfect (the Perfect System)
  • Voice: Active, Passive, Deponent (Passive in form but Active in meaning)
  • Mood: Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive, Infinitive, Participle, Gerund, Supine

There are thus over 170 forms for any regular Latin verb. More specifically, students advancing to Advanced Latin must be able to immediately recognize, confidently know, fully understand and reasonably manipulate:

  • All Active, Passive and Deponent Indicatives (of all SIX tenses!)
  • All Active, Passive and Deponent Subjunctives (Present, Imperfect, Perfect, Pluperfect)
  • All Active, Passive and Deponent Infinitives (Present, Perfect, Future)
  • All Active, Passive and Deponent Imperatives (Present, with Future ones to be learned through literature!)
  • All Active, Passive and Deponent Participles (Present Active, Perfect Passive, Future Active, Future Passive)
  • All Gerunds, Gerundives and Supines (including Gerund, Gerundive and Supine Phrases used to express Purpose)

The oncoming Advanced Latin student must also be familiar with all of – or at least most of – the Dependent Uses of the Subjunctive; all of – or at least some of – the Independent Uses of the Subjunctive; the Sequence of Tenses; and Latin Conditional Clauses (protases and apodoses).

Vocabulary

It cannot be over-emphasized that a fundamental cornerstone of language learning is building your vocabulary. The summer provides a unique opportunity to use one of the greatest ingredients in expanding your vocabulary: time. For all upper-level Latin classes (i.e. all Advanced Latin 400/500 classes), Mr. Babendreier, Mr. Cox, and Mr. Mehigan want their students to have mastered — or at least to have begun mastering — the 1,000 most common words in Latin literature. [Click on the link farther below to access the list.]

This vocabulary of 1,000 words is based on word frequencies in the Latin literature of the first two centuries B.C. and A.D. The list, originally compiled by the University of Liège, was digitized by the Classics Department of Dickinson College, and may be found here:

Latin’s 1,000 most common words (http://dcc.dickinson.edu/latin-vocabulary-list)

Sample vocabulary for the attached template quizzes is set out immediately below:

For DNA quizzes:

that long battle-line: illa acies longa

ille, illa, illud; acies, aciei, f.; longus, -a, -um

this second embrace: hic secundus amplexus

hic, haec, hoc; secundus, -a, -um; amplexus, -us, m.

the rising king himself: ipse rex surgens

ipse, ipsa, ipsum; rex, regis, m.; surgens, surgentis

a certain queen about to return: quaedam regina reditura

quidam, quaedam, quoddam; regina, reginae, f.; rediturus, -a, -um

the same burden having to be carried: idem onus portandum

idem, eadem, idem; onus, oneris, n.; portandus, -a, -um

that deeper tomb: istud sepulcrum altius

iste, ista, istud; sepulcrum, -i, n.; altior, altius

For Verb Synopsis quizzes:

rogō, rogāre, rogāvī, rogātus = ask  (1st person singular feminine)

mittō, mittere, mīsī, missus = send  (3rd person plural neuter)

terreō, terrēre, terruī, territus = terrify  (2nd person singular neuter)

interficiō, interficere, interfēcī, interfectus = kill  (1st person plural masculine)

feriō, ferīre, ferīvī, ferītus = punch  (2nd person plural feminine)

pellō, pellere, pepulī, pulsus = push   (3rd person singular masculine)