Learning Latin

English shows who does what to whom through word order. Latin shows it through endings. A noun changes its ending for each of six cases (subject, direct object, possession and so on), and nouns fall into five families called declensions that each use their own set of endings. Verbs fall into four families called conjugations, and one verb ending carries the person, number, tense and voice all at once. Because the endings do the work, word order is free: the verb usually waits at the end, and an adjective can sit several words away from its noun. There are no words for "the" or "a". Reading Latin means learning to notice endings as you go and hold a sentence open until the verb arrives. Dictionaries list a noun with its genitive and gender and a verb with four principal parts, because those are what you need to build every other form.

• ×A first course runs 35 to 40 chapters. At a chapter a week that is most of a year, and real authors still feel hard for a while afterward.
• ×The textbook-to-author gap is real. Course sentences are tidy, and Cicero's can run half a page. Easy readers and annotated editions are the bridge.
• ×There are a lot of tables. Learn each one when its chapter introduces it instead of memorizing them all up front, and they stay manageable.
• ×Many endings look alike: the same two letters can mark three different cases. The rest of the sentence settles which one it is, so read to the period before deciding.
• ×Translating word by word in English order turns every sentence into a scramble. Read left to right in the Latin order, noting what each ending promises.
• ×Skipping the long-vowel marks seems harmless until poetry, where the meter depends on them and relearning every word is slow.
• ×Changing courses at chapter ten restarts you at chapter one. Finish one book, and use a second only as extra reading.

Latin is one of the cheapest hobbies to equip, because the whole kit is books. The purchase that matters is the coursebook, so choose your course above and its book and companion join the cart. The dictionary earns its place even with free ones online: a paper dictionary edited for learners gives two or three clear meanings per word, where the scholarly ones give two columns. Check that it marks long vowels and covers both Latin to English and English to Latin. The grammar reference is where every table lives in one place, laid out the same way each time, so you stop hunting back through chapters. The easy reader is the extra reading every course runs short on. Used copies are fine for all of it, since Latin does not go out of date. Just match the edition of a workbook to the edition of its textbook.