A Latin Grammar

I had bought the book because I wanted to refresh my knowledge of latin to keep my aging brain active. I was delighted when I got it, and was looking through it when my son and his children came by. My granddaughter was excited and could hardly wait to tell me that she had won the Texas state trials at Health Occupational Science Association(HOSA)and was going to the National contests at Epcot Center in Orlando. Needless to say, I am proud of her and very excited for her. Then she noticed my A Latin Grammar, picked it up, and told all of us that the knowledge of latin was so necessary in medicine, science, the legal field, etc. I stopped her and asked her if she would like the grammar. She grasped it to her chest and told me how much it would help her in her studies. (There is a glossary in the back of the grammar book.) I should add that this child is 16, graduated in June, 2012 from high school, and had 2 years of college work under her belt. She isn't quite sure what her goals are, but I know she will make a difference in the world. She tells me she has already used A Latin Grammar to read some of the Latin parts of the Catholic Mass and it has made them clearer. Greatbook.Joyce Taylor-Smith

This is not a course in Latin but on the other hand it is not a reference grammar either. As the introduction says, "it aims to be a 'primer' (a first book) and at the same time something more than that." In fact, it is a short introduction to all the major grammatical points of the language as well as a handy reference for the accidence, without covering all the fine points you would expect to find in a true reference grammar like  Gildersleeve . I particularly like the convenient groupings of things like place words (ubi, hic, illic, inde, etc.) and some of the confusing adverbs and conjunctions like quidem, quin, quominus, and quamuis (not quamvis, note; the letter "v" is not used in this book). There are a few short exercises, but no keys. Appendices cover dates, money, Roman names, literary terms, and weights and measures. A short vocabulary includes only words used in the exercises. All in all, a surprising amount of information is packed into less than 200 pages, yet the book does not feel at all dense or cramped.

After slogging my way through the front-matter and chapter 1 of Wheelock's, I thought I'd try Oxford's Latin Grammar. Am I glad I did! A light turned on in my head. Latin was revealed in concise clear examples.I wouldn't go so far as to say that anyone could rely solely on this reference work. But it makes a superb adjunct in clarifying declension, conjugation, subjunctive, and all that stuff which Wheelock's spools out in longwinded tedious explanations that raise more questions than they answer. Oxford's Latin Grammar answers those questions, and shows you the big picture of Latin. Oxford shows you the forest, when Wheelock's gets you lost in the trees.

I had this with me during every latin class. It’s easy to navigate and gets straight to the point. Best of all, it has pages of grammar references for when you forget one particular ending.

This grammar fits in a coat pocket and will be a useful quick reference for core Latin morphology and syntax. Morwood assumes no grammatical knowledge on the reader's part. He explains all grammatical concepts with reference to simple, made-up Latin sentences that are immediately translated into English and explained. The Latin examples should be accessible to almost any student of the language. Further, he gives useful practical tips that will help the reader distinguish the more important points from the details. Syntax and selected points of word usage are treated in thematic chapters of several pages each (e.g., Conditional Sentences; Time Clauses; Because, although, as if; and so forth. These are fairly well done and slightly complementary to the explanations in first- year textbooks. Declensions are not given in the British-favored order (nominative, accusative, etc.) but in the order most familiar in the US (nominative, genitive, etc.): this is good point for US users. The book does not crib forms from older grammars where scholarship has advanced (e.g., the quantity of -i- in various forms of the perfect active subjunctive is shown as possibly long or short.)Some negatives are worth noting. Morwood writes in the Introduction that "[I} am delighted to have compiled the first Latin grammar in English to have banished the letter "v" from the Latin alphabet." It was a poor decision for an elementary reference, in my view. The visual impression of words is important to vocabulary recognition/acquisition and the likely users of this book won't be helped by visual dissonance with what they see Latin in readers and textbooks. In cases such as "absoluo, absoluere, absolui, absolutum" (p. 8) I can see a beginner hesitating between reading "u" as a vowel or a consonant in the first three principal parts.. Morwood does not carry this eccentricity to the extent of not using punctuation or the lowercase alphabet - although these were not found in the original Latin.There is some out-of-place content. Two pages are given over to a description of the history of the pronunciation of Latin in England. That is simply strange in an elementary text. The thematic chapters have very brief exercises in translation from Latin to English and English to Latin; each set covers a quarter to a half page. No key is provided. These exercises appear almost as an afterthought and will have little value to a self-learner or to a teacher. There's an appendix "Some Literary Terms." It covers some generic terms such as "irony" without any specifically Latin nuance and some poetic constructions such as "enallage" not likely to looked sought out in a book like this. The section on Roman names, less than a page, is much too thin and won't be found of much use. A section on Latin meters. traditional in grammars, is lacking.Latin Grammar reflects some mistaken emphases, in my opinion, but much is reasonably well done.

The book is very helpful and makes a nice supplement to some of the books written by professors, those focusing on verb conjugations along with adjective and noun declensions, sweeping grammar to the side.

Excellent format and detailed contents

ottimo prodotto che ben si allinea con la grande tradizione culturale inglese riconosciuta in ogni dove e che tiene alto il valore della memoria classica