So far...

You should by now have learned the following words. Well pretend you have.

Remember that there is more than one way to translate a word. For example, cantat could mean 'sings' or 'is singing'; servus could mean 'slave' or 'the slave' or 'a slave'. When translating a word, think about its meaning and how it fits into the overall text.

Also remember that words might not look exactly as they do above. When a noun is being used as the object of a sentence, it will be in the accusative case. For example, the accusative form of femina is feminam. A noun in the accusative case often ends 'am', 'um' or 'em'.

Translation

You'll soon be given a story to translate. Think about how you might translate a sentence.

dominus cibum consumit

It is usually useful to look for the verb first. In this example the verb is consumit, meaning 'eats'. (In Latin the endings of the words are very important! Notice that all of the verbs that you have met so far end with a 't'.)

Next look for the nouns. You probably know that dominus means master. cibum looks similar to 'cibus', meaning 'food', but ends with an 'm', so is probably accusative. So the accusative noun will be the object of the sentence, so place it after the verb in the translation; the non-accusative (i.e. nominative) noun will probably be the subject, so place it before the verb in English. This gives a translation like:

Master eats food.

Now alter the translation a bit so that it looks more like natural English. Try adding 'the' or 'a':

The master eats the food.

Or this might work better - it depends on the text being translated:

The master is eating food.

Exercise

Try translating this 'story'! Words that you (apparently) already know are listed at the top of this page; any words or phrases that you won't yet know are listed below the story.

Lucius canem spectat. canis latrat. canis est Felix. Felix non est feles. Felix non est cibus. femina sedet. femina uxor est. femina Lucium videt. Lucius est dominus. femina est domina. filius villam intrat. filius est Iulius.

Additional words & phrases

You don't need to learn these yet!

Click here for an example translation!

Vocabulary

You should hopefully know some of the words at the top of this page. Remember that a lot of English words are related to Latin words. Here are those words that you're expected to know, along with associated English words that might help you to remember them.

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