Latin Grammar

English skeakers can get along without spending much time on grammar but with Latin things are different. The words of a Latin sentence can be put in any order and correct grammar makes the meaning clear. Often the meaning of a Latin sentence is more precise than its English translation. This is made apparent in this Latin Grammar book. Before using it I would recomend beginners to learn a basic vocabulary of about 500 words. The book then provides lots of examples showing how these these words with their inflections can be put together.The letter 'v' does not occur in this book and so instead of 'cave canem', the warning reads 'caue canem'.

This is an excellent and generally user friendly grammar, and a good deal less daunting, especially for the beginner/intermediate learner than Kennedy.However, in some cases (pun intended) it sacrifices brevity over clarity. I can live with the deletion of the vocative in the noun tables, although for us with a vague memory of reciting "dominus, domine, dominum..." it is a trifle disconcerting. My major complaint is in the treatment of pronouns - those pesky hics, illes, istes etc that make schoolchildren weep! The layout is frankly awful - no doubt to save space - and the explanation non-existent. It introduces "deictic" pronouns with no explanation of what that means - it is mentioned in the glossary, if you think to look at the back of the book - but the distinctions between, say "ille" and "iste" - eg "that man of yours " "this man near me" are not made clear. A brief summary of the various uses would have been welcome.As would an index of grammar points. The index itself is good - for instance, if you look up "seruio", it directs you to a list of verbs that take the dative - eg "I am slave TO" rather than - as would be more natural for English speakers - "I am the slave OF". Also, whilst each grammar section has a few practice Latin - English, English - Latin sentences, there is no key for the independent learner to check their comprehension.All in all, a useful summary of Latin grammar, which nevertheless is marred by its preferring brevity over clarity.

The book is small enough to fit into even small bags but manages to cover a lot of ground very comprehensively. Things follow through fairly neatly. Everything has a neat little explanation and at least one example, this is very useful for creating your own practice papers as you can use the example and it's translation to create question papers and answer keys.

Excellent quality, being new, and received within a couple of days, thus superb customer service. Use of this dictionary is helped by excellent standard of printing. Being of similar size to the Oxford desk Dictionary, this makes a fine companion. It's extremely useful as a companion to my study of the subject (a hobby - at age 71).

Very good value! A handy, concise guide for anyone returning to Latin after a long break like me. Lots of examples and well laid out.As new. Would have bought Harrison, but the price persuaded me to go for this and I'm not disappointed.

I bought this for my 14 year old son whom I am teaching at home after a school change, the new one not offering latin. It seems that it goes into deeper detail than GCSE text books do, which is most interesting, but there don't seem to be enough practice exercises for my liking. You can use the examples given as practice translations so long as your eye doesn't stray to the line below where they are translated. A useful reference book.

For teaching Latin to oneself: this compilation of grammar is extremely useful.For someone needing to revise before GCSE exams this summer: invaluable.For reference: perfect.After purchasing the Classical Greek equivalent, I invested in this little guide.Great size - can easily be shoved in my school bag.Great layout - easy to read and the pages are laid out in a logical manner.It includes both accidence and syntax which is brilliant when it comes to learning/revising and it is presented in a user-friendly manner which is better than some of the other books I have come across.

In planning and in presentation this grammar is extemely useful. For sorting out what you ought to have remembered - or pehaps never properly learnt - it is highly commendable. I wish I had had one years ago.