Latin Classes Woo-Hoo! Nōmen

Latin Classes – Woo-Hoo! Nōmen

Dr. McGaius How to Make Vocabulary Flash Cards

Why make them?...

(1) Because making flash cards is the best way to learn the vocabulary for a language other than living in a country where the language is spoken - an unfortunate impossibility now for Latin students.

(2) The mere act of making the cards will help encourage the learning of new words.

(3) They are portable, so they can be easily and quickly reviewed almost anywhere: the bus, the car (unless you’re driving!), in front of the mirror, with a friend or family member, etc.

(4) By adding derivatives to the cards, we can make connections between English and Latin, and learn many new words that might be useful in our writing, speaking and studying for the SAT’s.

howto make them?...

(1) Get 400-500 3” x 5” cards at a local office supply store. Blank or lined is fine – your preference. You may also want to get cards of different colors for different chapters or parts of speech, but white cards will suffice.

(2) Use your chapter vocab lists, which can be downloaded from your class page on the Teacherweb. These lists have more complete lists of Latin forms and English derivatives.

(3) Put all the Latin forms on one side of the card. For verbs, there should be 4 forms/stems. For nouns, there are 2 stems plus gender. For adjectives, some have 3, some have 2 stems. Essentially, everything on the vocab list before the “=” should go on one side of the card. Again, do not make cards from the book list!

(4) Put English meanings and derivatives on the other side. For the longer lists, put at least 6 derivatives on the cards. (Think how your English vocabulary will grow!)

(5) One word or expression per card!!! Do not put multiple vocab words on 1 card!

Examples

(1)Nouns – 3 things: nominative stem, genitive stem + gender

1Nominative stem; 2genitive stem; 3gender is feminine; 4English meaning; 5derivatives

(2)Verbs – 4 things, called“principal parts,” from which every verb form can be made

64 principal parts or stems for verbs; 7English meaning, 8special phrase; 9derivatives

(3)Adjectives – some have 3 stems, some two, and a few have only one stem:

(4)Adverbs – usually only one form:

(5)Prepositions – note the case each preposition governs: accusative or ablative.

(6)Pronouns – these tend to be quite irregular.

(7)Conjunctions – these words connect clauses or begin subordinate phrases.

(8)Interjections – Hey! O! Ouch! Look! Alas! Woops! Woo-Hoo!

Mini guidelines:

• Use the lists in the study guide to make cards & put all Latin forms on cards
• Use the lists in the study guide to make cards & put 6+ English derivatives on cards
• Use real index cards: 3” x 5” index cards, not paper
• Put cards in an envelope, and make sure your name is on the envelope
• One word per card: Put Latin on one side, English meaning and derivatives on the other
• Do not recycle cards for other chapters: i.e., cross out words, for new words

 Failure to follow these procedures results in -2 points per bulleted item

(9)Use the lists in the study guide to make cards & put all Latin forms on cards

• Use the lists in the study guide to make cards & put all English derivatives on cards
• Use real index cards: 3” x 5” index cards, not paper
• Put cards in an envelope, and make sure your name is on the envelope
• One word per card: Put Latin on one side, English meaning and derivatives on the other
• Do not recycle cards for other chapters: i.e., cross out words, for new words

 Failure to follow these procedures results in -2 points per bulleted item