VCE Latin key terms

A Latin participial phrase, noun plus participle in the ablative case, grammatically separate from the main clause and expressing circumstance such as time, cause, or condition.

The Latin case of separation and instrument, used without prepositions for means, manner, and degree, and with prepositions for place, time, and agent.

The Latin case marking the direct object, the object of many prepositions, and the subject of indirect statement, and used for extent of space and duration of time.

The Latin case of the indirect object and of advantage or disadvantage, also used with certain verbs and adjectives that take an object in this case.

The Latin case expressing possession, description, partitive relation, and objective or subjective relation with verbal nouns; it is also the case governed by some verbs and adjectives.

A verbal adjective formed from a verb stem, agreeing with a noun in case, number, and gender while retaining tense and voice, as in the present, perfect, and future forms.

Reported speech or thought in Latin, expressed by an accusative noun as subject with an infinitive as verb, after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, or perceiving.

A subordinate clause expressing aim, introduced by ut or ne with a verb in the present or imperfect subjunctive, and negated by ne.

A subordinate clause expressing consequence, introduced by ut or ut non with a subjunctive verb, often signalled beforehand by words such as tam, ita, or tantus.

A Latin verb mood marking non-factual or subordinate meaning, used in purpose, result, cum, indirect question, and conditional clauses, and in wishes and commands.

A reported question in Latin, introduced by an interrogative word and taking a subjunctive verb whose tense is governed by the tense of the main verb.

The rule that a subjunctive verb takes primary tenses after a main verb in a primary tense and secondary tenses after a main verb in a historic tense.

A verbal adjective ending in -ndus, expressing obligation or fitness, as in the passive periphrastic, or agreeing with a noun in gerundive attraction after prepositions.

A verbal noun in the neuter singular of the oblique cases, expressing the action of a verb, as in ars scribendi, and used where a noun is needed for the verb.

A Latin verb passive in form but active in meaning, such as loqui or sequi, whose perfect participle may still be used with passive or active sense.

The grammatical category distinguishing active from passive verb forms, showing whether the subject performs or undergoes the action expressed by the verb.

An uninflected word governing a noun in the accusative or ablative case, expressing relations of place, time, means, or accompaniment.

A verb used only in the third person singular with no personal subject, such as licet or piget, often taking a dative of the person affected.

The non-finite verb form naming the action, used as a noun, as the complement of modal verbs, and as the verb of indirect statement.

The analysis of Latin verse into metrical feet, marking long and short syllables and the caesura, especially for dactylic hexameter in the prescribed text.

The metre of epic, with six feet of dactyls or spondees, the fifth foot usually a dactyl and the sixth a spondee or trochee.

A word break within a metrical foot of a verse line, often in the third or fourth foot of a hexameter, used for emphasis and rhythm.

The running on of a sentence or phrase beyond the end of a verse line, so that sense and syntax cross the metrical boundary.

The omission of a word or words that the reader must supply from context, common in Latin poetry and in compressed prose expression.

A figure in which one verb or adjective is shared by two or more words, though it fits each differently, producing economy or pointed effect.

An arrangement of paired elements in the order A-B-B-A, often used in Latin verse and prose to frame a contrast or balance a clause.

A group of three parallel clauses or phrases, often with increasing length, used for rhetorical force in speeches and historical narrative.

The omission of conjunctions between words or clauses in a series, giving speed, urgency, or abrupt emphasis to the expression.

The repeated use of conjunctions between words or clauses, slowing the rhythm and giving weight or insistence to each item.

The separation of words that naturally belong together, such as an adjective from its noun, a common feature of Latin verse word order.

A direct address to a person, place, or thing, often absent or dead, used in epic and lyric to heighten emotion or frame a comment.

An explicit comparison introduced by words such as velut or sicut, often extended in epic to a scene from nature or daily life.

The attribution of human qualities or speech to a non-human thing or abstraction, a figure frequent in Latin poetry and rhetorical prose.

The set Latin passage or passages named in the study design, studied in detail for language, content, and literary technique in the external examination.

A written explanation of a passage that identifies its content, language features, and literary effects, supported by quotation and precise reference to the text.

A rendering that keeps as closely as possible to the grammar and word order of the Latin, used to show accurate comprehension before a polished version is produced.

An expression whose meaning cannot be deduced from its individual words, requiring a recognised English equivalent rather than a word-for-word rendering.

The four forms of a Latin verb, present, infinitive, perfect, and supine, from which all other forms and their stems can be derived.

The use of a present-tense verb in a narrative about the past, common in Latin historians, which can quicken pace and add vividness.