Latin Prose Composition

A Guide from GCSE to A Level and Beyond

Andrew Leigh

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781350048041
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Ancient Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book helps students to write Latin using increasingly complex forms of expression. Part 1 gives guidance and practice exercises for the new sentences required at GCSE, while Parts 2 and 3 contain a series of chapters of grammatical introduction and exercises for translation into Latin leading up to A Level and Pre-U. Part 4 takes students into more advanced areas of composition. Continuous passages are included from an early stage alongside stand-alone sentences. Leigh gives clear guidance on the characteristic features of Latin prose, such as word order and subordination, as well as more advanced grammatical complexities. At the back of the book, lists of vocabulary and accidence provide reference and revision tools for students at all levels. Working through the book the rewards of learning to write Latin are clear: not merely a challenge to be overcome, prose composition gives a heightened appreciation of how Latin authors used the language to express themselves in their own particular styles.

Part One

GCSE

1

Writing Latin at GCSE (Eduqas)

Verbs

The ending of the verb gives the person and the tense.

The present tense describes what is happening/happens.

The imperfect tense describes what was happening/used to happen.

The perfect tense describes what happened/has happened.

3rd person singular: he/she/it

present	amat	he/she/it loves; is loving
imperfect	amabat	he/she/it was loving; used to love
perfect	amavit	he/she/it has loved; loved

3rd person plural: they

present	amant	they love; are loving
imperfect	amabant	they were loving; used to love
perfect	amaverunt	they have loved; loved

Exercise 1A

1He despairs.

2He is hurrying.

3She walks.

4They are announcing.

5He was greeting.

6They used to help.

7She was preparing.

8He has praised.

9They called.

10She worked.

Nouns: subject

The ending of the verb indicates the person: he/she/it/they.

If there is a noun expressing the subject, that noun is in the nominative case:

He announced.

nuntiavit.

The messenger announced.

nuntius nuntiavit.

There is no word in Latin corresponding to the English words the and a.

Exercise 1B

1He is shouting.

2The slave is shouting.

3They are walking.

4The women are walking.

5They used to stand.

6The children used to stand.

7She has praised.

8The mistress has praised.

9He walked.

10The master walked.

Nouns: object

A noun expressing the object is in the accusative case:

The husband was looking after the children.

maritus liberos curabat.

Order of words

Though there are no fixed rules, the following guidelines usually apply:

The subject, if expressed by a nominative, comes first.

The verb comes last.

The object comes in between.

Exercise 1C

1Th...