Latin Teaches English Grammar
It’s counterintuitive, but BECAUSE Latin and English grammar are so DIFFERENT from each other in so many ways, Latin actually teaches English grammar far better than modern languages do. In fact, a major reason for the general decline in English-grammar understanding is the steep decline in the number of students studying this ancient language. Latin teaches English grammar effectively because it provides students with a unique grammatical perspective that reveals the structure and logic of the English language, a perspective that most modern European languages don’t provide BECAUSE their sentence structure is so SIMILAR to that of English.
How It Works
English and most modern European languages have pretty much the same basic sentence structure. Every English sentence contains (at the very least) a subject and a verb, and may also contain a direct object, indirect object, predicate adjective or predicate nominative, objects of prepositions (in prepositional phrases), and/or possessives. All of these words are nouns (one of the parts of speech, along with adjectives, verbs, prepositions, etc.) except for the verb and predicate adjective.
English speakers know (though usually only intuitively, not consciously) what “role” a particular noun has in a specific sentence from the position that the noun has in the sentence. The English speaker is able to identify the verb quite easily because it indicates an action (action verb) or a state of being (linking verb). In English the noun that precedes the verb will then have to be the subject of the sentence, and nouns that follow the verb will have to be a direct object or indirect object (if it’s an action verb) or a predicate nominative or predicate adjective (if it’s a linking verb). Possessives and prepositional phrases can be placed pretty much anywhere in the sentence but are easily identified by the way they’re expressed (possessive = “of the noun”, “noun’s”, or “nouns’ “; prepositional phrase = “preposition + the noun”).
Here is a summary of the four primary English sentence templates. Every English sentence or clause will fit into one of these, though there are many variations within each template.
1) subject – action verb – direct object – “to” – indirect object
Ex.: “The boy gives the book to the girl.”
2) subject – action verb – indirect object – direct object
Ex.: “The boy gives the girl the book.”
3) subject – linking verb – predicate nominative
Ex. “The boy is a student.”
4) subject – linking verb – predicate adjective
Ex.: “The boy is smart.”
As you can see here, we know what role each noun has by its position in the template relative to the verb and the other nouns. The logic of a Latin sentence, on the other hand, is totally different. Latin has the same parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions, etc.) and the same roles for nouns (subject, direct object, indirect object, object of preposition, possessive, predicate nominative), but the role of a noun in Latin is determined by its “case”, indicated by the ending on the noun, which changes depending on the case (role) and the number (singular or plural).
If we translate the following English sentence into Latin, which uses the same noun in a variety of roles and numbers, we see how this works:
English: “The man gives the men to the man of the men.”
(subject – action verb – direct object – “to” – indirect object – possessive)
Latin: “Vir dat viros viro virorum.”
In the English example we know which noun is the subject, which is the direct object, and which is the indirect object by the position, and we know that the final noun is possessive from the word “of”. In the Latin translation, on the other hand, we know the role of each noun by the ending. And while in the example above I used the same word order in Latin as I used in the English sentence, this isn’t actually necessary because position isn’t needed in Latin to determine role (which is instead determined by the noun’s ending). In fact, the main parts of a Latin sentence can be put in any order. Therefore the sentence above (“Vir dat viros viro virorum”) could be written in any of the following ways:
“Vir dat viros viro virorum.”
“Dat vir viros viro virorum.”
“Virorum viro dat viros vir.”
“Viros vir viro virorum dat.”
“Viro virorum viros dat vir.”
And these are only SOME of the word-order possibilities for this sentence. In fact, the primary elements of the sentence (subject, verb, direct object, indirect object, prepositional phrases) could be in any order and the meaning of the sentence would still remain the same since the endings determine the roles.
As you can see, this is a VERY different way of structuring sentences compared to English, and a successful Latin student will have no choice but to learn and be able to apply every single rule of grammar relating to the structure of both Latin and English sentences. Over the years I’ve had very few students who genuinely understood the structure of English sentences before they began their study of Latin. After a relatively short time studying Latin, though, they all developed an advanced understanding of English grammar and sentence structure. Students learning languages like Spanish, French, or Italian, on the other hand, end up understanding English barely any better than they did before because the logic of sentence structure is pretty much the same in those languages as it is in English.
Latin students really have no choice–they HAVE to develop a detailed understanding of English grammar or they won’t be successful in Latin. But what does this mean in real terms? Well, because Latin students are forced to understand the logic and grammar of their native English language, their relationship to English tends to change in the following ways:
Change #1) Common mistakes in English grammar are greatly reduced in speech and writing.
An example of a common English mistake is the confusion between subject pronoun forms (I, we, he, she, they) and the corresponding object pronoun forms (me, us, him, her, them). Because the average English speaker has never learned the overall logic of the English sentence and because subject and object forms are exactly the same for all other nouns, he or she may have a hard time understanding why “Bobby and me love sports” is incorrect but “Bobby and I love sports” is correct. Most people end up relying on what they hear the people around them say, even though those people may understand English grammar no better. But because Latin nouns have distinct forms for each role in the sentence, Latin students rapidly learn the difference between subjects and objects, making the correct use of English subject and object pronouns quite easy for them.
Change #2) Students write English more clearly and efficiently.
Because Latin students learn the grammar and logic of English better and in more detail than other students, they develop a conscious control of the language that allows them to write in English at a higher level and much more easily. Since they now understand English sentence structure, they’re able to put sentences together with little effort and fewer mistakes. Writing skills are key for every student’s long-term success and should be a central focus of a good education. Unfortunately, the general quality of students’ writing has degenerated over time with changes in educational norms, and in recent years accelerated with the advent of AI (artificial intelligence). If you are a parent who’s concerned about this trend, there’s (in my opinion) only one clear solution–put your student in Latin. People who study Latin acquire the tools and knowledge they need to write English at a high level even if their previous education in English may have been less than ideal.
Change #3) English reading speed and comprehension are greatly increased.
As you’d probably guess, Latin improves students’ English reading skills just as much as it improves their writing skills. The understanding of English grammar and structure that comes with the study of Latin makes it far easier for the student to interpret English in an accurate and specxific way. This greater reading competence affects all aspects of the student’s education, making it far easier for him or her to excel in every other subject. There’s been a severe and rapid degradation in recent years in the general literacy of the English-speaking world (due partially to changes in educational models over time and partially to the explosion in the use of AI). If you’d like your student to be the exception, there’s no better and simpler solution than the study of Latin.
Check out the main article in this series: Why Learn Latin?
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