Latin/Basics 2 Lesson 2

Salvēte omnēs! This is the 5th in a series of Latin lessons, in an informal and simple style. If you would like to catch up, you can find a directory of lessons, a classified vocabulary list, and Memrise courses at the links on the right.

In this lesson, we cover singular and plural forms of 2 common verbs; various people will be drinking and reading. There will be a limited use of the accusative case for direct objects of these simple sentences.

New grammar: Nothing terribly new, but it is important to distinguish between cases of Latin nouns. So far we have learned that subjects and predicate nouns go in the nominative case, the same case they are given in in the vocabulary. But when used as a direct object, the nouns must (usually) be given a different ending. All of this is dependent on their individual "declension" or classification, and will have to be addressed in much greater detail later on.

We have also learned the importance of subject-verb agreement; in other words, if the 1st person singular is used as subject, you need the 1st person singular ending for the verb, etc. Many Latin sentences have no expressed subject noun or pronoun, because the personal endings are included in the verbs. For this reason, I'll usually put subject pronouns in parentheses, because they are not strictly necessary.

New vocabulary edit

Latin English Audio (Classical)
bibō I drink
bibis you (s.) drink
bibit he, she, it drinks
bibimus we drink
bibitis you (pl.) drink
bibunt they drink
Latin English Audio (Classical)
legō I read
legis you read
legit he, she, it reads
legimus we read
legitis you (pl.) read
legunt they read

Those are the two verbs. We will also learn one new noun:

Latin English Audio Notes
liber, librī (m.) book
accusative s. is librum
et and
nōn not

New sentences edit

Latin English Notes
Fēminae the women
Puellae aquam bibunt. The girls drink water.
Aquam bibunt. They drink water.
(Ei) aquam bibunt. They (masculine) drink water.
(Eae) aquam bibunt. They (f.) drink water.
Hominēs aquam bibunt. The men drink water.
(Vōs) aquam bibitis. You (pl.) drink water.
(Vōs) puellae estis. You (pl.) are girls.
(Nōs) aquam bibimus. We drink water.
(Nōs) sumus virī. We are men.
Estis puerī. You (pl.) are boys.
(Nōs) bibimus. We drink.
(Vōs) hominēs estis. You (pl.) are men.
Puerī et puellae aquam bibunt. The boys and girls drink water.
Liber the book
(Egō) legō. I read.
Hominēs librum legunt. The men read the book.
(Vōs) legitis. You (pl.) read.
Lūcia legit. Lucia reads.
Ea legit. She reads.
(Tū) legis. You read.
(Nōs) librum legimus. We read the book.
Mārcus et Paula librum legunt. Marcus and Paula read the book.
Klingōnēs aquam nōn bibunt. The Klingons do not drink water.
Puerī nōn legunt. The boys do not read.
Nōn legimus. We do not read.

Practice edit

Practice and learn the words and phrases in this lesson
Step one First learn the words using this lesson:
Step two Next try learning and writing the sentencing using this:
Note that the Memrise stage covers the content for all the basics 2 lessons.
If you are skipping previous stages you may need to manually "ignore" the words (use the 'select all' function)

That's all for now... those Klingons do keep slipping in. They make sample sentences fun. Valeās!