Numbers, Days of the Week, and Action Verbs
Students integrate numbers and days of the week into their simple “est”/”sunt” questions and answers. They then move on to action verbs, learning to use them in more complex conversations.
This article is the third installment of a series of articles on this blog. If you haven’t read the first two parts of the article (Learn to Speak Latin: Part 1 and Learn to Speak Latin: Part 2), please click over to those before reading this one.
Step 7) Numbers
Up until now you’ve asked questions using only the interrogative forms “quid” and “quae” or no interrogative word at all. Once the students are sufficiently comfortable with asking and answering questions in those two ways, though, you should next introduce the interrogative adjective “quot” along with the Latin numbers from “one” to “ten”. Here’s a list of this vocabulary:
Quot? = How many?
unus, -a, -um = one
duo, duae, duo = two
tres, tria = three
quattuor = four
quinque = five
sex = six
septem = seven
octo = eight
novem = nine
decem = ten
You should go over the full declension of the numbers “unus, -a, -um”, “duo, duae, duo”, and “tres, tria” since students will need to use the appropriate gender of each in the nominative and (eventually) will need to use other cases of these numbers as well. Using the vocabulary students have learned thus far, point to a thing or things and ask:
Quot ___ sunt? = How many ___ are there?
Here are some sample questions and answers:
Q: Quot buccae sunt? (Ask as you point at two cheeks.)
A: Duae buccae sunt.
Q: Quot cultri sunt? (Ask as you point at a knife.)
A: Unus culter est.
Q: Tria cochleara sunt? (Ask as you point at a spoon.)
A: Minime. Unum cochlear est.
Q: Sex bracchia sunt? (Ask as you point at two arms.)
A: Non! Duo bracchia sunt!
Q: Suntne tria menta? (Ask as you point at one chin.)
A: Minime! Mentum unum est.
Q: Tres aures sunt? (Ask as you point at two ears.)
A: Non, magister. Sunt duae aures.
As you can see, this will be a big step forward for students since they will now need to make the number adjectives agree in gender, number, and case with the nouns they modify. This will be MUCH harder for them than the previous conversational exercises. As before, you need to work on this until they get comfortable with it and are asking and answering questions correctly most of the time (both in their interactions with you and in pairs).
Step 8) Days of the Week
A logical next step is questions and answers about the days of the week. You should integrate some prepositions and adverbs into the conversation. First, go over the vocabulary for the days of the week with the students:
dies Solis = Sunday (“day of the sun”)
dies Lunae = Monday (“day of the moon”)
dies Martis = Tuesday (“day of Mars”)
dies Mercurii = Wednesday (“day of Mercury”)
dies Jovis = Thursday (“day of Juppiter/Jove”)
dies Veneris = Friday (“day of Venus”)
dies Saturni = Saturday (“day of Saturn”)
You should then introduce the following extra vocabulary, at least some of which they should already be relatively familiar with:
hodie = today
heri = yesterday
cras = tomorrow
ante (+acc.) = before
post (+acc.) = after
inter (+acc.) = between
dies, diei (m./f.) = day
hebdomas, hebdomadis (f.) = week
As before, you should engage in question-and-answer exchanges with individual students (using the Days of the Week vocabulary along with the interrogatives learned previously) and then have them do the same in pairs. Here are some sample questions and answers:
Q: Quid est post diem Veneris?
A: Dies Saturni post diem Veneris est.
Q: Quid heri dies erat?
A: Dies Lunae erat heri. (If today is Tuesday.)
Q: Quid est dies inter diem Mercurii et diem Veneris?
A: Dies inter diem Mercurii et diem Veneris est dies Jovis.
Q: Quot dies inter diem Lunae et diem Jovis sunt?
A: Inter diem Lunae et diem Jovis duo dies sunt.
Q: Quot dies sunt in hebdomade?
A: Sunt septem dies in hebdomade.
Q: Quid erit dies cras? (If today is Wednesday.)
A: Cras erit dies Jovis.
This will be another big step forward for the students since they now have to use the accusative and genitive forms of certain nouns, as well as the imperfect and future third-person forms of the verb “sum, esse, fui, futurum” along with several adverbs. Students will likely need quite a bit of time to master these sorts of questions and answers, and you should give them as much time as they need. Ideally, you should integrate the use of the imperfect and future forms of “sum” into your conversations in a gradual way, making sure that the students are never overwhelmed.
Step 9) Action Verbs
Your students are now at the point where they should be able to handle the use of a short list of action verbs, used in combination with vocabulary from previous conversations. Here is a list of basic Latin verbs that you should use (but for the moment only in the present tense):
habeo, habere, habui, habitum = have
tango, tangere, tetigi, tactum = touch
video, videre, vidi, visum = see
scribo, scribere, scripsi, scriptum = write
lego, legere, legi, lectum = read
ago, agere, egi, actum = do, conduct
This is a good time to introduce the Ablative of Time When / Time Within Which as well in questions and answers involving the days of the week. For example:
die Jovis = on Thursday
Here are some sample questions and answers:
Q: Quid tango? (Ask as you touch your nose.)
A: Nasum tangis.
Q: Quid ago, discipule? (Ask as you pretend to read.)
A: Legis, magister.
Q: Quot furcas vides? (Ask as you point at one fork.)
A: Unam furcam video.
Q: Quot aures habeo?
A: Duas aures habes.
Q: Quot bracchia habes?
A: Habeo duo bracchia.
Q: Die Veneris scribis?
A: Minime, magister. Sed die Jovis scribo.
Q: Die Solis legis?
A: Vero! Die Solis lego, et die Lunae!
This is obviously another big step forward for students since they will not only need to become comfortable with using action verbs with the appropriate accusative forms but also the Ablative of Time When / Time Within Which. As always, you should bring the students along gradually, introducing new elements of grammar bit by bit, and then, when all elements have been introduced, give them PLENTY of time to practice. You should also encourage them to continue to use the grammar and vocabulary they’ve already learned in earlier parts of the course. Continue to use the visual vocabulary overheads from the previous lessons of the textbook, but integrating the new elements of grammar.
Step 10) Practice Elements of Grammar with New Noun Vocabulary
Mastering the conversational use of the grammar introduced in the previous step will be a real challenge for your students, so you should give them plenty of time to do so. As I’ve said before in this series of articles, it’s better to introduce new elements of grammar slowly. The students should have learned all this grammar previously in the grammar/translation portion of their Latin studies, but it’s one thing to learn HOW the language works and a completely different thing to learn how to apply that knowledge in conversation. Students are developing a previously undeveloped part of their brain, something they can do effectively only with sufficient practice over time. For this reason the Carmenta textbook slows down at this point, introducing very few new elements of grammar over the next six lessons. These lessons contain primarily new noun vocabulary. This allows students PLENTY of time to practice the elements of grammar previously introduced.
Still, a small amount of new non-noun vocabulary IS introduced in these six lessons of the text, and it should be integrated into your new Latin conversations as much as possible. Here is a list of the new non-noun vocabulary:
Ubi? = Where?
in (+abl.) = in
meus, -a, -um = my
tuus, -a, -um = your
multus, -a, um = much (sing.), many (pl.)
solus, -a, -um = only, alone
nunc = now
hic = here
As you can see, the interrogative adverb “ubi?” is introduced, which you should now use at the beginning of some of your questions, along with all the interrogatives introduced previously in the text. This allows for a wider range of conversational possibilities than you had before.
You will also use the preposition “in” with the ablative object for the first time. Previously, all of the prepositions you used had accusative objects. This new preposition use will force students to come up with correct ablative forms for nouns, which at first may be challenging for them. At this stage they need to supply correct nominative, accusative, and ablative forms in their conversations. They will need time to get good at this, and it’s important that you give them the time they need. As always, sufficient conversational practice will be key to their long-term success.
In these six lessons four basic adjectives are also introduced. The only declined adjectives students have used up to this point are the numbers “unus, -a, -um”, “duo, duae, duo”, and “tres, tria”. The new adjectives will give students much-needed practice in this area of grammar. They will be forced to make adjectives agree (on the fly) with the nouns they modify, identifying the gender, number, and case of the noun in their mind then supplying the matching form of the adjective, even though the ending of the noun and adjective will often not be the same. This is one of the most challenging conversational skills students will need to master, and they will need plenty of time to do it.
Two new adverbs are also introduced in these lessons, “nunc” and “hic”. Adverbs may seem far simpler than other grammatical elements students need to master, but they aren’t as easy to deal with as you might think. As with all other elements, you should have students integrate these new adverbs, along with adverbs previously introduced, into their conversations.
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