How to Learn Latin

Not long ago I posted an urging to learn Latin as a vital part of revivifying Catholic culture in the world. Well, it’s been off and on, but lately it’s been mostly on, and I think I’ve made enough progress to be able to recommend some tactics for learning Latin. This is, sadly, only for the purpose of reading and writing Latin; I haven’t found anyone nearby who’d like to speak and listen in Latin with me yet. Hopefully my children will reach that point, if I don’t find anyone sooner.

(As a side note, father sitting down and studying something, much like my children do (they are homeschooled), has my oldest son very interested in learning Latin. He’s only five, but even today, as I was doing my drills, he told me, “Daddy, I really want to learn Latin, but I can’t remember all the words!” Fortunately, neither can his father, so I hope that gave him hope. I’m looking forward to starting Latin with him just as soon as he’s comfortable reading in English. He can read now, but I’d like him to get very comfortable reading English before I throw another language into the mix. I’ll probably give it another year, when my own fluency should have advanced to a sufficient point itself.)

This advice will apply to one who knows a little Latin from school; who knows some Latin from the liturgy but nothing of the actual structure of the language; or who knows nothing about Latin at all.

The first piece of advice: you’ll have to spend some money. You won’t have to spend much; many people spend more on hobbies every month, and the money you’ll spend on Latin will last certainly your life, and possibly your children’s, as well. But you will have to put some investment in it. Why? To buy books.

Now, I’m a fairly young man, but it still astounds me that people expect to be able to learn everything about everything just by looking things up on the Internet. People feel sick, look up their symptoms on WebMD, and suddenly their lack of any medical credentials whatsoever counts for nothing. The Internet is fun and all, and there is a lot of valuable information on it, for learning Latin as for most everything else. (We’ll get to some of that shortly.) But back when I was coming up, when someone wanted to learn something, they opened large stacks of paper with words printed on them called books. And honestly, as much as the Internet has to offer, it doesn’t have enough; you’ll need books. You’ll be glad you bought them; the investment is well, well worth it.

So here’s a list of the paper books you’ll need if you seriously want to learn Latin. Devote yourselves to these for fifteen minutes a day, give or take (missing a day won’t kill you, but try to be as regular as possible), and within a year you’ll have at least a decent reading and writing knowledge of Latin. Let’s begin:

Buy Books

A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin by John F. Collins. This is by far the most important tool in your Latin arsenal. It explains grammatical concepts clearly and concisely; gives a good overview of pronunciation without getting too minute and nitpicky; and includes in each unit a vocabulary list that is about the perfect length for one-session memorization. Most importantly, each unit ends with a set of drills and a set of exercises; the drills require the learner to practice the grammar of the unit to the point that it becomes second nature, while the exercises engage one in translating, mostly from Latin to English but also some English to Latin, a direction usually neglected in textbooks. These translation exercises start with easy made-up sentences, but gradually come to incorporate real-world examples from ecclesiastical texts, and eventually move away from individual sentences into real texts. Do all of these drills and exercises, without exception, even if they seem too easy. They’re not. The practice will be invaluable in making Latin second nature to you. Nothing could be more important to the adult student of Latin than this book. If you get the answer key with it, it’s even cheaper.

Cassell’s New Latin Dictionary by D. P. Simpson or The Bantam New College Latin & English Dictionary by John Traupman. Whichever of these you choose, it will be your constant companion in your studies. You really need one or the other of these; personally, I own both, very old and raggedy copies from all the thumbing and flipping I’ve had to do in them. There’s little, as far as I can see, to recommend one over the other; my edition of Cassell’s is larger and more cumbersome, and my edition of the New College has a superb synopsis of Latin grammar in the beginning section that I’ve often found invaluable. (Indeed, I taught myself most of the grammatical forms out of it at one time, long ago.) But either way, you need at least one of these two. Why these two? Simply, the English to Latin section. Many dictionaries neglect this; yet a Catholic learning Latin must want, at least eventually, to do his own Latin composition, and an English to Latin section will prove extremely valuable in that respect.

Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin by Leo F. Stelten. Other dictionaries are required for other purposes. This one is short, but still an important resource for studying ecclesiastical Latin in particular.

A Latin-English Dictionary of St. Thomas Aquinas by Roy J. DeFerrari. An incredibly valuable resource necessary for anyone delving into the Angelic Doctor (and of course you will be, if you’re studying Church Latin). Sadly, this seems to be out of print, and used copies are expensive. Don’t buy it if you can’t find a decently priced copy, and I won’t include it on the list of prices below. But if you can get your hands on a copy, grab it; you won’t regret it. Honestly, it’s excellent simply as reading material, not merely as a reference; it really is a superb volume.

Latin Grammar by Robert Henle (“Henle,” pronounced “Henley”). This is basically a synopsis of the grammar, and in a pinch you could probably get by without it. But especially once you’ve worked through most of Collins and you need a quick refresher on something (I know I want to use a gerundive here, but how would I do that properly?), Henle would be extremely helpful. And it’s not too expensive, either, so it’s a good resource to have.

So here are the essential volumes for your Latin-learning collection, the kind that are available only on dead trees:

Book	Price ($)
Collins	17.78
Collins, Answer Key	15.25
Cassell’s Dictionary	16.47
or Bantam’s Dictionary	3.44
Stelten’s Dictionary	19.77
Henle’s Grammar	9.50

All these prices are from Amazon; it’s entirely possible you could find better prices elsewhere. And you can probably get combinations of these volumes at good deals. But all told, assuming you get Cassell’s (the higher priced dictionary), you’re only looking at $78.77, not bad for a skill that will enrich your faith, your intellect, and your life for the remainder of your days in this vale of tears.

Use the Internet

Just because the Internet isn’t the be-all and end-all of research doesn’t mean it’s not useful; I just get tired of people using the phrase “did some research” as synonymous with “Googled it.” There are a great many Latin resources on the Internet; indeed, most of the Latin texts I read (as opposed to learning materials) I get off the Internet. Here I’m talking about learning Latin rather than reading it, so I’ll start with the available textbooks and learning materials. These are legion; the best, in my opinion, are as follows.

A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language, with Perpetual Exercises in Speaking and Writing by G. J. Adler. This book is available entirely online, and it’s well worth the few minutes it takes to download. The answer key is also fully available. The book shows its age---it was originally published in 1858---but it’s fairly unique among available grammars in its emphasis on actual speech. Personally, I’d rely on Collins, above, for the grammar and drills, and rely on Adler for the conversation.

Latinum: The Online Latin Language Audio Course from London. If you’re not annoyed by the classical pronunciation (where “vici” ends up pronounced “wiki”) to the point that you can’t focus, this might be helpful to you, as well. It’s certainly helpful to hear significant quantities of actual spoken Latin, no matter how irritating the pronunciation is. (If you’re blessed enough to have a Latin liturgy nearby, this won’t be an issue; you can also speak Latin aloud to yourself, even if you don’t know the words, to get yourself used to hearing the sounds of the language and telling words apart, noticing word endings, and so on.) Available for free.

Once you’ve gathered together your supplies, here’s what I’ve found to work for me, and I hope will work for you, as well:

Study for at least fifteen minutes per day. More would be great, but try to keep to that minimum. It’s often noted that children learn languages more easily than adults; this is true, but it’s true because children have almost all their time devoted to it, whereas adults rarely get in a consistent period of study. Fifteen minutes a day isn’t too onerous; it’s enough to learn some words, memorize some grammar, and do a few exercises. Half an hour would be even better, and it’s what I aim for; but a minimum of fifteen minutes it pretty indispensable.

Study vocabulary. Grammar is fun, and learning all the rules is important, but you can have memorized every obscure use for the ablative in the world and still understand no Latin if you don’t know actual words. Work hard on the words; make sure a good portion of your daily study is memorizing vocabulary. It can be extremely boring, but it’s vital. A mentor of mine, Father Adrian Harmening, is a Benedictine monk who for decades taught Latin at a Benedictine high school. He told me students always passed their grammar tests, because grammar is comparatively easy; it was vocabulary that universally tripped them up. Work hard on the vocabulary; it’s the most important thing.

Pronounce the Latin out loud. You’ll feel like an idiot, but do it. You’ll gain familiarity with it; you’ll feel more comfortable with it; it’ll help you memorize your forms and words better. And most importantly, it’ll get you used to hearing Latin used in reality and accustom you to separating words out in Latin without thinking about it.

Think in Latin. Easier said than done, I know, but do it anyway. Even if just in little ways; when you get your shoes in the morning, don’t think shoes, think calcei. Don’t sit down to dinner, sit down to cena. Don’t speak to your wife; loquere uxori. An enormous help in this regard is praying in Latin; once again, a Latin liturgy is hugely helpful but not essential here.

Read Latin. By far the most important. Aside from your fifteen minutes of drills per day, read as much Latin as you can. When you’ve put in a couple of months’ study, start reading the daily Mass readings and Gospels in Latin. As you progress, make your pleasure reading Latin. Skip something you’d otherwise read and instead partake of something in the great language of the Church, even if you’re still slow at it and you can only manage a few sentences, or even only one. When you start looking, you’ll start tripping over Latin texts everywhere; some excellent examples follow.

Read the Bible. The Vulgate, specifically the Clementine Vulgate, is surely the most read piece of Latin literature in history. It’s also an excellent example of grammar, both of the classical (in parts) and vulgar (more akin to Church Latin) varieties. (It’s not called the “Vulgate” for nothing.) bibsearch is a Bible program that will produce biblical texts on command, as well as search for them, in Latin and in English, using texts that it took from the Vulsearch project. It works in most free operating systems, like GNU/Linux and the BSDs. For those sadly still trapped by Microsoft, Vulsearch will do the same, in a graphical environment. Connected to the Vulsearch project is the great Clementine text project, to which we all owe an enormous debt of gratitude.

Get words. Not just any words; Whitaker’s Words. This is a phenomenal little program, written initially for Microsoft-based systems but easily recompiled for GNU/Linux (I’ve got a script; ask if you want it), BSD, and other systems, that will be a constant companion in your studies. Enter any word, of whatever grammatical form, and words will obligingly return all possibilities for its grammatical form and meaning, even when either or both is ambiguous (as happens; this is a human language, after all). Binaries for most free operating systems are also available. It’s console-only (that is, you need to type in a window), but it’s very easy to use and has no substitute. Note that an effort to streamline the program is underway; the original program can be downloaded at the archived original site.

Read Corpus Thomisticum’s Omnia Opera. This site provides the original texts of everything that St. Thomas Aquinas ever wrote. Really, you can’t get better than that for source material; the Scriptures are more important objectively, and the Vulgate is the only translation without any error, but they are still a translation, and for native ecclesiastical Latin idiom St. Thomas Aquinas knows no equal, unless it be possibly (in linguistic terms only) the next author on the list.

Read S. Aurelii Augustini Opera Omnia. The complete works of St. Aurelius Augustinus, usually known in English as St. Augustine. This is hard Latin, borderline classical in its construction, with an enormous vocabulary to draw from and delighting in intricate and unusual constructions. Good for advanced work, or even intermediate work if you know your grammar and are looking for ways to test it.

So what are you waiting for? Get to it! Learning to at least read Latin will open doors to all the great richness of the Catholic tradition. It’s hard to think of a better way to spend fifteen minutes a day.

Praise be to Christ the King!