QCAA Latin (SEE) cheat sheet

Identify the main verb of each clause first: a finite verb ends every Latin sentence, so locate it before assigning cases to nouns.

Ciceronian period structure: a long sentence typically opens with a subordinate clause or ablative phrase, suspends the main verb to the end, and closes with a rhythmical clausula.

Historiographical prose (Caesar, Livy, Sallust) favours parataxis, historical present, and ablative absolute chains; render ablatives absolutely as temporal or causal clauses in English.

Indirect statement (accusative + infinitive) is governed by verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, perceiving; translate with 'that' and shift the infinitive's tense relative to the main verb.

Indirect question uses a subjunctive verb with an interrogative word; translate as a noun clause, not a direct question.

Qui, quae, quod at the head of a sentence often introduces a connective relative meaning 'and he/she/it' or 'but this'; do not force a literal 'who' clause.

Gerund and gerundive: gerundive of obligation (e.g. delenda est) renders as 'must be destroyed'; ad + gerundive expresses purpose.

Render impersonal passives (itur, pugnatum est) with an indefinite subject such as 'they' or 'people', or a passive English construction.

Dactylic hexameter: six feet of dactyl (long-short-short) or spondee (long-long); the fifth foot is almost always a dactyl, the sixth a spondee or trochee.

Elegiac couplet: a hexameter line followed by a pentameter, whose pattern is two half-lines each ending long-long, with the caesura in the middle.

Enclitics -que, -ve, -ne attach to the preceding word; split them off before parsing, and note that -que on a first word often joins two sentences.

Hyperbaton (separated noun-adjective pairs) is a stylistic marker in verse: rejoin the pair before translating, and treat the separation as emphasis.

Verse word order is metrically driven; identify subject, object, and verb by case and agreement, not by position.

Apostrophe and epic simile signal shifts of addressee or scene; mark them so the translation preserves the narrative frame.

Archaic and poetic vocabulary differs from prose (e.g. aether, umbra, fata, ensis); keep a running verse glossary and check the metre for elision.

Anchor each passage in its book and line numbers; the SEE expects precise citation of the prescribed text.

Track speaker and addressee changes: identify who speaks, to whom, and whether the narrator or a character controls the voice.

Distinguish narrative time from narrated time; flashbacks and prophecies (e.g. Anchises' parade of heroes) shape interpretation.

Note repeated imagery and motifs across the set text; repetition is evidence for argument, not decoration.

Comprehension questions usually ask what happens, why, and with what effect; answer each part with a quoted Latin word or phrase as support.

Locate the passage within the whole work's structure: proem, digression, turning point, or closure.

Identify the addressee of a dedication or invocation (patron, Muse, deity) because it frames the work's purpose.

Five declensions: genitive singular ending identifies the declension (-ae, -i, -is, -us, -ei).

Case functions: nominative subject/complement; accusative direct object, extent, motion towards; genitive possession, partitive, objective; dative indirect object, advantage, agent with passive; ablative separation, instrument, manner, absolute.

Four conjugations: -are, -ere (long e), -ere (short e), -ire; principal parts give present, infinitive, perfect, supine.

Subjunctive uses: purpose (ut/ne), result (ut/non), indirect command, cum-causal/circumstantial, jussive, optative, potential, deliberative.

Sequence of tenses: primary sequence (present, future, perfect with 'have') takes present/perfect subjunctive; historic sequence takes imperfect/pluperfect.

Conditions: simple (indicative), future more vivid (future/future perfect indicative), future less vivid (present subjunctive), contrary to fact (imperfect/pluperfect subjunctive).

Deponent verbs are passive in form but active in meaning; semi-deponents (audeo, fido) are active in present system.

Supine: accusative supine after verbs of motion expresses purpose; ablative supine is used with adjectives.

Identify the trope by name and function: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, personification, apostrophe, ekphrasis, simile, hyperbole.

Sound devices: alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, anaphora, chiasmus; link each to the sense of the line rather than listing it.

Structural devices: ring composition, framing, foreshadowing, delay, epic retardation, and the typical 'hero's descent' pattern.

Register markers: epic diction, archaic forms, diminutives, and Grecisms signal genre and tone.

Intertextuality: identify allusion to earlier authors (Homer, Ennius, Lucretius, Catullus) and state what the allusion achieves.

Contextualise: patron-client relations, recitation culture, Augustan ideology, and the poet's stance on war, pietas, and imperium.

Quote the Latin precisely and then analyse: technique, effect, and contribution to theme.

Roman religion: state cult, pontifices, augurs, Vestals, household lares and penates; pietas is duty to gods, family, and state.

Social order: patricians and plebeians, equestrians, freedmen, slaves; clientela binds patron and client in mutual obligation.

Political offices: cursus honorum from quaestor to consul; tribunes of the plebs hold sacrosanctity and veto power.

Augustan settlement: principate, tribunician power, imperium, moral legislation, and the ideology of restored republic.

Military: legions, auxilia, cohort structure, and the role of the army in politics from Marius to the civil wars.

Literature and patronage: Maecenas' circle, recitation, and the shift from republican to imperial literary culture.

Greek influence: Hellenisation of religion, philosophy (Stoicism, Epicureanism), and rhetoric in Roman education.