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Latin Foundations Boot Camp Part 7 of 12: Fifth Declension Nouns

Memorize and practice the fifth declension Latin noun pattern in this intensive camp
Judy Watson, PhD
Average rating:
5.0
Number of reviews:
(26)
Class

What's included

4 live meetings
3 hrs 20 mins in-class hours

Class Experience

This is the seventh class in a 12-class series of 4-day-long camps aimed at learning some important basics of Latin.

The goal of this series is to memorize important Latin grammatical paradigms. Latin is a highly inflected language, which means that the forms of the words change to reflect their meaning. This can be confusing to new students of Latin, and it can be really difficult to remember all the different endings and what they mean.

It’s a little bit like the multiplication table. Imagine how difficult it would be to do 5629 x 5538 if you didn’t know any part of the multiplication table. You’d have to stop to look up or count out the answer for each pair of numbers and it would take FOREVER to solve that problem. It goes much faster if you have your times tables memorized. 

Latin grammar patterns are the same sort of thing — they’re the foundation for the rest of your Latin studies. The better you know them, the easier everything else will be. If you have them memorized and you’ve practiced translating back and forth a lot, you’ll move through translations much more quickly, confidently, and accurately.

In this series, we will spend four days in a row focusing on a different pattern or set of patterns to memorize. We will practice using choral drilling (chanting the patterns) individually and as a group. We will apply what we’re learning immediately to translate words from Latin to English and English to Latin. 

It isn’t necessary to have taken any prior Latin before taking any of these camps. You can take all the classes in sequence or any of them separately. 

In this part, we’ll be learning and practicing the declension pattern for fifth declension nouns. We’ll learn the names of the cases and their rough meaning in English. We’ll be reciting the declension pattern over and OVER and OVER AND OVER together and individually. In addition to all this choral drilling, we’ll learn some fifth declension vocabulary words and practice translating them from Latin to English and English to Latin. We’ll make some flash cards together, and I’ll share a Quizlet set with the vocabulary so you can practice the vocabulary using Quizlet, too. I’ll share the declension tables and exercises in the classroom.

By the end of this class, you should be confident:
1) reciting the fifth declension paradigm; 
2) identifying, parsing and translating fifth declension nouns;
3) reciting the principal parts and definitions of several fifth declension nouns.

This class would be good for you if you like memorizing things, if you’re going to start a Latin course this fall and want to have the best preparation for it, if you’ve been studying Latin for a while but you’re struggling with translations, or if you’re just thinking about studying Latin and you want to see whether it’s something you’d enjoy.

This class wouldn’t be a good fit for you if you already know the declension patterns, if the idea of reciting the same thing over and over in a Zoom  classroom sounds deeply unappealing, if you’re looking for something with whole sentences to translate, or if you’re looking for something involving history or culture. 

This class (and series) is just focused on getting some tedious memorizing achieved as efficiently and permanently as possible. It really is faster and less boring when you’re memorizing things like this with other people!

Heads up: The order of the cases used here is Nominative, Vocative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Ablative. If you’ve learned Latin before with a different pattern (as I did!) it might be a rough transition at first, but I’m an enthusiastic convert to this case order.

Learning Latin this way can be difficult, but I think it’s fun and massively helpful. I hope you will, too!

Other Details

External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Joined October, 2020
5.0
26reviews
Profile
Teacher expertise and credentials
Archaeologists study geology, math, biology, chemistry, physics, materials science, ecology, zoology, anthropology, ancient and modern languages, history, sociology, geography… Everything! Archaeology applies tools and knowledge from almost every subject in order to understand more about the lives of people in the past.

I enjoy teaching classes about different sorts of analysis and interpretation archaeologists do, like chemical analysis of teeth, bones and artifacts. I also think Latin is a lot of fun, and I've really enjoyed teaching Latin classes on Outschool using a variety of old textbooks from the late 1800s and early 1900s aimed at young kids. I studied Latin for three years in high school and again during my MA, but I like the vintage textbooks loads more!

I have a BSc in archaeological science, an interdisciplinary MA in medieval and Renaissance history and culture, and a PhD in archaeology, in which I combined historical research with strontium isotope ratio analysis of human dental enamel to answer questions about origins and mobility of a cemetery population. I’ve imaged and analysed archaeological, museum, and art objects using a scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive spectroscopy, x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and Raman spectroscopy. I have a Celta certificate (teaching English to speakers of other languages), and I’ve taught kids ESL online for over four years. I homeschooled my daughter. For homeschooling, I was pedagogically all over the map, from unschooling to hardcore (old-style) Saxon math (complete with copious student tears. I regret nothing, and have since been thanked by said student.). 

I use different approaches in different classes. Some classes focus on mastery of facts or skills. Other classes are more exploratory and focus on discussion, discovery, and articulating our thoughts and ideas. For older learners, I like to encourage collaborative work. 

I live on a boat with a very nice cat.

Please feel free to send me a message with any questions, or request a time for an office hour appointment (Latin Office Hour/Assessment).

Reviews

Live Group Class
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$56

for 4 classes

4x per week, 1 week
50 min
Completed by 3 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 8-12
2-4 learners per class

This class is no longer offered
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