Award-Winning Latin Tutors serving Chesterfield

This session, the student wanted to work on understanding the various technical terms we use to describe Latin grammar, so that he'll always understand what he's learning or being asked for. So, we went through the nominal system, talking about the terms for the different cases, what a declension is, etc. Then, we went through the same process for verbs, discussing the tenses, moods, etc. Finally, we also reviewed the parts of speech.

We discussed translating the poetry of Catullus. This gave us the opportunity to work on grammar specifically, as meter was not a big part of the assignment. The student was good at identifying the case and number of words. However, she struggled translating cases properly. So I focused on the types of ablative and dative cases, and the specific cum and quod clauses one deals with in Latin. We discussed how cum clauses can have four translations -- when, although, since, because -- and that these are very much context dependent. For this reason, one should always go back and smooth over sentences after an original translation to get the best final translation.

We began by reviewing the vocabulary for the past few chapters. I wanted to see how well they actually knew the content that they said they were quizzed on earlier in the day. We then spent time going through the grammar associated with uses of the infinitive and the present passive construction of the infinitive. This took some time, though both seemed to grasp the grammar both in English and in its application to Latin. Following this, I worked through the new content to give them a "head start" on comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.

The student and I spent this session discussing the questions and concerns he had regarding the grammar, vocabulary, exercises, and translation passages found in Chapters 10-13. These chapters focus primarily on the pronoun types, relative clauses, and the use of the dative case with select verbs. The student continues to put enormous amounts of effort into Latin and it really shows.

We started working ahead a little bit by introducing the grammar topics from the upcoming chapter, which the student 's class should be starting this week. Those topics are the ablatives of place where, place from which, time when, time within which, respect, manner, and means. He did a great job translating, including tackling a long and complicated sentence entirely without help and getting it right on his first try! He seems to grasp the uses of the different ablatives very well, though again, he needs to keep studying those case endings to make sure he can recognize an ablative more quickly.

The student shared the results of his test from Monday. He did rather well, well above the class average in most categories. The English to Latin translation section can yet see improvement, and we will continue to focus on this (ultimate) skill as we move forward. We then spent the rest of our time preparing for tomorrow's synopsis test, practicing synopses themselves with particular attention to 3rd and 4th conjugation verbs, then reviewing the principle parts of the verbs which might appear on the test. The daily quizzes for Friday and Monday appear to straightforward enough, and I know that he will review and prepare in his usual thorough and detailed manner.