There's no magic trick to memorizing vocabulary, but you have to do it if you want to be successful in learning and translating Latin. Here you'll find some tips that may make memorizing words easier.
- Learn cognates of Latin words. Memorizing vocabulary in Latin is not as hard for speakers of English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. Why? Because those languages were influenced by Latin! Many words in those languages are directly derived from Latin words. Some words even sound or look almost exactly like their Latin grandparents, and those words are called cognates. For example, the word for "long" in Latin is longus, -a, -um - not hard to remember at all! (Here's a Spanish example: the word casa, which means "house" in Spanish, also means "house" in Latin!)
- Learn derivatives. Derivatives are words that come from Latin, but don't sound or look exactly like their Latin grandparents. For example, the words antebellum, belligerent, and bellicose are all derivatives of the Latin word bellum, -i (war). Learning derivatives will not only help you remember Latin words, but will also expand your English vocabulary as well. (There's a reason why Latin students do better than others on the SAT!)
- Connect words to things you are familiar with. Many words have connections to things in our everyday lives or in pop culture. You can find a way to connect pretty much every Latin word to something you are familiar with. For example, to remember the word cena, -ae (dinner) I think of John Cena eating a big dinner the night before a wrestling match. Or, to remember the word regina, -ae (queen) I remember that Regina George was considered the queen bee in the movie Mean Girls.
- Know your learning style and apply it. Whether your learning style is visual, auditory, hands-on, or something else, there is a way to learn vocabulary that fits with your learning style. Take this quiz to find out what your learning style is.
The Vocabulary Journal Method
This is an idea I had in eighth grade, and it has helped me tremendously with vocabulary. I am a visual learner, but it could help people of other learning styles as well. Here's how to make a vocabulary journal.
1. Buy/obtain a three-ring binder (at least 1.5 inches thick), five dividers, notebook paper, and colored pencils or pens of at least five different colors. (I recommend using erasable pens, because they allow you to completely erase if you make a mistake, but their writing is dark enough to easily see when written on notebook paper.)
2. Put the notebook paper and the dividers into the binder. The first three sections should be larger than the last two, but sized about equally to each other. The last two should be sized about equally to each other as well.
3. Label the dividers in this way:
1st divider - Nouns
2nd divider - Verbs
3rd divider - Adjectives
4th divider - Pronouns
5th divider - Other (this is where you will put conjunctions, prepositions, and other words that aren't declined or conjugated - you just have to memorize them.)
4. Choose a different color for each of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. These will be the colors for the declensions and conjugations of those numbers. When you write a word, you'll write it in the color of its declension or conjugation. (As for adjectives, I would recommend making the 1st & 2nd declension nouns the same color as the 2nd declension nouns. The 3rd declension adjectives should be the same color as the the 3rd declension nouns and 3rd conjugation verbs.)
Here's how I color-coded mine:
Red - 1 (1st declension nouns and 1st conjugation verbs)
Blue - 2 (2nd declension nouns, 2nd conjugation verbs, and 1st & 2nd declension adjectives)
Green - 3 (3rd declension nouns, 3rd conjugation verbs, and 3rd conjugation adjectives)
Purple - 4 (4th declension nouns and 4th conjugation verbs)
Light blue - 5 (5th declension nouns; no 5th conjugation)
1. Buy/obtain a three-ring binder (at least 1.5 inches thick), five dividers, notebook paper, and colored pencils or pens of at least five different colors. (I recommend using erasable pens, because they allow you to completely erase if you make a mistake, but their writing is dark enough to easily see when written on notebook paper.)
2. Put the notebook paper and the dividers into the binder. The first three sections should be larger than the last two, but sized about equally to each other. The last two should be sized about equally to each other as well.
3. Label the dividers in this way:
1st divider - Nouns
2nd divider - Verbs
3rd divider - Adjectives
4th divider - Pronouns
5th divider - Other (this is where you will put conjunctions, prepositions, and other words that aren't declined or conjugated - you just have to memorize them.)
4. Choose a different color for each of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. These will be the colors for the declensions and conjugations of those numbers. When you write a word, you'll write it in the color of its declension or conjugation. (As for adjectives, I would recommend making the 1st & 2nd declension nouns the same color as the 2nd declension nouns. The 3rd declension adjectives should be the same color as the the 3rd declension nouns and 3rd conjugation verbs.)
Here's how I color-coded mine:
Red - 1 (1st declension nouns and 1st conjugation verbs)
Blue - 2 (2nd declension nouns, 2nd conjugation verbs, and 1st & 2nd declension adjectives)
Green - 3 (3rd declension nouns, 3rd conjugation verbs, and 3rd conjugation adjectives)
Purple - 4 (4th declension nouns and 4th conjugation verbs)
Light blue - 5 (5th declension nouns; no 5th conjugation)
Every time you learn a noun, verb, or adjective, go to the section it belongs to and write:
Every time you learn a pronoun, go to the Pronoun section and write its English meaning and all of its forms (singular and plural, all cases for all genders). Pronouns don't belong to any declension, so we just have to memorize their forms. Sorry :( Also, make sure to write what type of pronoun it is (relative, demonstrative, etc.) An example page is shown in the slideshow above (slide #8).
Every time you learn a preposition, conjunction, or other word, go to the Other section and write:
Include numbers, along with their Roman numerals, in the Other section.
*You can put words in alphabetical order or in order of when you learned them. Do whatever works best for you.
- The word in the color of its declension or conjugation. Put the word in dictionary format.
- for a noun: nominative singular form, genitive singular form (ex: agricola, agricolae)
- for a verb: four principal parts (see verb page) [ex: amo, amare, amavi, amatus]
- for an adjective: see the adjective page
- If it is a noun, write the symbol of its gender (♂for masculine, ♀for feminine, ⚲ for neuter) next to the word. It's important to do this, especially with 3rd declension words, because there's actually no way to tell what gender a word is. And even though 1st declension words are mostly feminine, 2nd declension words are mostly masculine/neuter, and so on, there are exceptions. Writing the symbol next to the word helps to make sure you remember the word's gender when you learn the word.
- The meaning(s) of the word. If you think a word might have more meanings than the ones your source gives you, check multiple sources.
- Memory aids. These can be cognates, derivatives, or other things that will help you connect the word to what you already know.
Every time you learn a pronoun, go to the Pronoun section and write its English meaning and all of its forms (singular and plural, all cases for all genders). Pronouns don't belong to any declension, so we just have to memorize their forms. Sorry :( Also, make sure to write what type of pronoun it is (relative, demonstrative, etc.) An example page is shown in the slideshow above (slide #8).
Every time you learn a preposition, conjunction, or other word, go to the Other section and write:
- the word (in black, since these types of words don't belong to a declension or conjugation)
- the meaning
- memory aids - if any (unfortunately, there aren't usually any with these types of words)
Include numbers, along with their Roman numerals, in the Other section.
*You can put words in alphabetical order or in order of when you learned them. Do whatever works best for you.
