Latin Verbs: To Infinitives and Beyond! is a series of three workbooks—Book I, Book II, and Book III—that can be used with students in about fourth grade and above. The series is best for students who are beginning to learn Latin with a more comprehensive program, but one or more of the books can be used as primers before starting a full study of Latin. The author of Latin Verbs is also the author of the Olim: Once Upon a Time in Latin series. While Latin Verbs is not a required resource for the Olim series, it works well with it. However, it may also be used profitably alongside most other Latin programs that don’t already have built-in recitation, practice, and review of verbs.
Each book teaches 34 verbs through recitation and written work, following the same format. The primary goal is for students to thoroughly memorize the four principal parts of each verb and their conjugations in the present tense, active voice. (Some irregular verbs are included.) Brief instructions about the principal parts of Latin verbs, verb conjugations, and classical Latin pronunciation precede a chart of the verbs to be learned in each course.
Students recite the four principal parts of each verb and their conjugations for only one verb each day, saying the infinitive form first in both Latin and English, listing the four principal parts, and then the verb’s conjugation in both Latin and English.
During the first week of each course, students work only on recitation. In the second week, they begin recitation of the second verb, continue recitation of the first verb, and complete two worksheets on the first verb. They continue in this manner, adding one verb per week to the recitation schedule and reinforcing with written exercises for the verb added the prior week. A maximum of 12 verbs are on the recitation list, so when you add the thirteenth, you drop the first verb, maintaining 12 at a time through the rest of the course. A chart on page six helps you keep track of the rotation.
The two worksheets per verb include the recitation information, which is also provided near the front of the book for easy reference. Recitation content is followed by several exercises. The worksheet activities are presented under sections A through E for Monday through Friday. Daily work includes more than one type of activity, as I describe below.
- Recitation is first, and it should be repeated each day. This is followed by a translation activity where Latin verbs are presented within six English sentences, and students translate the verbs into English. For instance, the first sentence to translate on Page 32 reads, “Agunt the work.” Students translate “agunt” into “they do.” A box to the side offers students a further challenge to translate the word work into either its nominative/subject or accusative/direct object form. This challenge is particularly helpful for those who are also learning other parts of speech in Latin.
- Students do a simple matching exercise with the six Latin forms of the verb and their English translations. Below the matching, they have two blanks to complete with translations from English into Latin for two forms of the verb.
- A series of English derivatives from the Latin verb are provided for students to copy on the lines provided. They also write both Latin and English forms of the verb’s infinitive form and complete a conjugation chart without referring to the prior page.
- Students are to write a simple sentence in English using one of the Latin verb forms and complete a second translation exercise that asks students to translate English verb forms into Latin.
- Students are to chant and write the six Latin verb forms and then fill in two blanks with the correct translations of two of the Latin verb forms.
The first review appears after 10 lessons, with cumulative reviews following after every five lessons. Reviews have two pages of matching exercises and two pages of translation work. Answer keys for both lessons and reviews are at the back of each book.
While you can spread each review out over a full week, you might want to double up lesson activities during review weeks, using the last day or two for the review.
Summary
Verb conjugations are one of the most difficult aspects of learning Latin, and combining recitation with workbook activities should work very well as a reinforcement for mastering Latin verbs.
