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Teach Yourself Latin
Learn Latin with little effort! You can use Teach Yourself Latin to learn the language at your own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. It is based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly. Prepared by experts in the language, Teach Yourself Latin begins with the basics and gradually gets you to a level of smooth and confident communication, including: Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises Step-by-step guide to pronunciation Practical vocabulary Regular and irregular verb tables Plenty of practice exercises and answers Bilingual glossary This new edition also features: Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout Self-assessment quizzes to test progress Website suggestions to take language study further
224 pages, Paperback
First published May 12, 1979
182 people are currently reading
200 people want to read
About the author
Gavin Betts
21 books1 followerGavin Betts was Associated Professor of Classical Studies, Monash University, Victoria, Australia. His publications include Teach Yourself Latin, Teach Yourself New Testament Greek, Teach Yourself New Testament Greek and various translations of medieval and Modern Greek texts.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 19, 2012
I read this book to prep myself for the spelling bee, and I must admit that while it contained a plethora of useful and fascinating information, it never truly explained them. It talked about verbs and declensions as if I already knew what they were. Which, I did, but let's just say if I'm trying to rush my way through five units a day, I'm not going to remember what incola is in Unit 10 when you first introduced it in Unit 1. Alright, so maybe I shouldn't have rushed through this, but then it talked about nominative singular, vocative singular, accusative plural forms and such. I had to constantly refer back to the very first Unit to remember this because, well, it was never explained. There was just a chart, a pattern involving puella, and that's it.
I'd recommend this book if you're trying to get a basic grasp on Latin. But if you're trying to understand the language and comprehend it to the best of your abilities, I'd find another book instead.
I'd recommend this book if you're trying to get a basic grasp on Latin. But if you're trying to understand the language and comprehend it to the best of your abilities, I'd find another book instead.
November 19, 2007
What I learned from this book, Latin.
I thought this book of the Teach Yourself series requires a little more rote memorization than other books in the set do, and wouldn't be too distinct from other Latin guide books.
Still, Teach Yourself is a great series, I'm a huge fan of their language instruction books and CDs and would very much recommend this books to a would-be learner.
I thought this book of the Teach Yourself series requires a little more rote memorization than other books in the set do, and wouldn't be too distinct from other Latin guide books.
Still, Teach Yourself is a great series, I'm a huge fan of their language instruction books and CDs and would very much recommend this books to a would-be learner.
August 12, 2023
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Curabitur velit arcu, laoreet a tellus eget, viverra eleifend ante. Aenean condimentum risus lacinia faucibus vestibulum. In facilisis ac massa quis hendrerit. Morbi sem urna, varius eu tellus id, rutrum auctor est. Fusce ex leo, ultrices in orci bibendum, iaculis volutpat metus. Nulla dui metus, efficitur ut mattis at, luctus non quam. Nunc in mauris porta, consectetur velit non, elementum lectus. Mauris ultricies luctus sollicitudin.
Cras finibus sit amet diam a tempus. Aenean venenatis leo sed risus ornare faucibus. Sed tortor orci, vestibulum non hendrerit et, semper vitae turpis. Phasellus egestas pharetra nunc eu malesuada. Suspendisse hendrerit feugiat condimentum. Vestibulum ornare dui in libero condimentum suscipit. In eu gravida odio, nec sodales ante. In sagittis, lacus quis dapibus scelerisque, urna lacus ultricies ligula, id porttitor quam felis ut urna. Vivamus facilisis varius nulla, vestibulum tincidunt nunc iaculis eu. Sed fringilla ipsum ut nisi viverra sollicitudin.
Quisque ultrices vel neque et accumsan. Ut id consequat lorem. Nam venenatis, justo blandit efficitur porta, velit lacus gravida libero, et volutpat lorem eros a enim. Curabitur elementum quam sit amet tincidunt luctus. Aenean ornare tempor tincidunt. Ut quis sem lorem. Maecenas viverra est non arcu interdum, ac facilisis metus aliquet. Donec et nisl lacinia, vulputate tellus cursus, condimentum nisi. Curabitur ac lorem nec tellus aliquam maximus quis non felis. Sed a enim tortor. Cras iaculis metus ipsum, vel congue lectus auctor id. Curabitur efficitur ornare pulvinar. In tincidunt, quam at ultrices sodales, velit felis euismod dolor, a sollicitudin odio nunc ut nibh. Quisque molestie neque sit amet auctor condimentum.
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Vivamus non rhoncus tortor, luctus porttitor tellus. Integer laoreet ipsum urna, id hendrerit lectus congue sodales. Quisque convallis diam nec sem fermentum, quis aliquam lectus pretium. Pellentesque interdum turpis mauris, eu iaculis sem sollicitudin eu. Nulla nisi augue, facilisis id dui at, accumsan sodales dui. Aliquam sagittis dui eu nunc dapibus, dictum rhoncus nulla lacinia. Nunc ipsum magna, vulputate eget ex at, pretium condimentum felis. Duis porta hendrerit arcu eget sagittis. Curabitur lectus leo, auctor sit amet commodo nec, auctor a tellus. Sed eget suscipit dolor.
November 15, 2018
Another one of those modern paperbacks that just doesn't stand up to long usage. The glue started to fail and the pages began to fall out after a few months. My copy now looks ridiculous from having the first 40 pages held together by sticky tape!
Like TY Ancient Greek, no vocabulary after the first few chapters (ch 9) necessitating me to make my own vocabulary list.
A nice range of original Latin material given to translate, such as Caesar, Juvenal, Martial etc, but a couple of examples of later/medieval Latin would have added interest.
Better, on the whole, than the Greek book, from the numbering of lines next to translation passages, to the grammar tables at the back. It might have been nice to add a little English to Latin translation for flexibility of learning, like the Athenaze course, but a decent book, apart from paperback resilience issues.
I did do 3 years of Latin at school, 35 years ago, so this is a handy refresher.
Did I say 40 pages held together with tape? I should have said 80!
Like TY Ancient Greek, no vocabulary after the first few chapters (ch 9) necessitating me to make my own vocabulary list.
A nice range of original Latin material given to translate, such as Caesar, Juvenal, Martial etc, but a couple of examples of later/medieval Latin would have added interest.
Better, on the whole, than the Greek book, from the numbering of lines next to translation passages, to the grammar tables at the back. It might have been nice to add a little English to Latin translation for flexibility of learning, like the Athenaze course, but a decent book, apart from paperback resilience issues.
I did do 3 years of Latin at school, 35 years ago, so this is a handy refresher.
Did I say 40 pages held together with tape? I should have said 80!
Read
August 3, 2011My favourite parts of this book: the presentation of the quis, quae, quod family of pronouns/adjectives and the tabulated demonstration of primary and historic tenses and their use of the indicative or subjunctive moods.
While I appreciate the Roman trivia between lessons, there was not enough of it. Mr. Betts' stated intention is to avoid teacher-constructed sentence practice, so readers can move directly to classical poetry. I think we little men need to begin with prose such as that of Cicero and learn proper word order before moving on to poetry.
Each lesson is short and easy to dash over. Subjects like the above mentioned primary/historic tenses need to be well understood for Latin construction and could have been dealt with at length. But this is a basic book and Mr. Betts only has so much space.
I think the next book in order is Teach Yourself's Essential Latin Grammar. That should fill in the blanks.
While I appreciate the Roman trivia between lessons, there was not enough of it. Mr. Betts' stated intention is to avoid teacher-constructed sentence practice, so readers can move directly to classical poetry. I think we little men need to begin with prose such as that of Cicero and learn proper word order before moving on to poetry.
Each lesson is short and easy to dash over. Subjects like the above mentioned primary/historic tenses need to be well understood for Latin construction and could have been dealt with at length. But this is a basic book and Mr. Betts only has so much space.
I think the next book in order is Teach Yourself's Essential Latin Grammar. That should fill in the blanks.
February 1, 2026
I gave up in lesson 9, when I realized that I hadn't learnt anything. Every lesson is just a huge amount of grammar and then a couple of random sentences. I don't know if I am supposed to memorize everything, but even if so, I am not willing to go on that path. Not to mention that from lesson 10 they take away the dictionary, and you are supposed to look up everything yourself.
Switching to Reading Latin, since I have a much better experience with this series (while learning Ancient Greek) and maybe gonna try the Assimil + Shadowing method as well.
Switching to Reading Latin, since I have a much better experience with this series (while learning Ancient Greek) and maybe gonna try the Assimil + Shadowing method as well.
January 22, 2015
It helped refresh my, very limited Latin, but I just wish there were more to read to help you keep the knowledge. I think I need to push myself with this so I can then read Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis.
March 13, 2008
A fairly comprehensive autodidact's guide to the Latin language.
March 6, 2015
Was good but I didn't finish it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews