Državna Matura Latin flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

1st declension endings

Nom. -a, gen. -ae, dat. -ae, acc. -am, abl. -ā; plural nom. -ae, gen. -ārum, dat./abl. -īs, acc. -ās. Mostly feminine; exceptions like poēta, nauta are masculine.

3rd declension i-stems

Nouns with genitive plural -ium, ablative singular -ī, and neuter plural -ia. Typical: cīvis, hostis, nāvis, mare. Distinguish from consonant stems with -um and -e.

Verb principal parts

Four forms: present indicative, present infinitive, perfect indicative, supine. They give the three stems (present, perfect, supine) used to build all tenses and verbal nouns.

Active personal endings

Singular: -ō/-m, -s, -t; plural: -mus, -tis, -nt. Passive: -or/-r, -ris, -tur, -mur, -minī, -ntur. These endings mark person and number in every tense.

Ablative absolute

A noun or pronoun plus a participle or adjective in the ablative, grammatically independent of the main clause. Translated as 'when/since/after/with...' e.g., Urbe captā, cīvēs fūgērunt.

Sequence of tenses

Primary sequence (present, future, future perfect, imperative) takes present or perfect subjunctive. Secondary sequence (imperfect, perfect, pluperfect) takes imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive.

Indirect statement

Accusative plus infinitive after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing. Tense of infinitive shows time relative to main verb: present (same time), perfect (before), future (after).

Cum clauses

Cum with indicative = temporal 'when'. Cum with subjunctive = circumstantial ('since', 'although') or narrative ('when', historic). Context and tense determine meaning.

Purpose and result clauses

Purpose: ut/nē + subjunctive, negative nē. Result: ut/nē + subjunctive after tam, ita, tantus, adeō. Both obey sequence of tenses; purpose answers 'why', result 'what happened'.

Fear clauses

Timeō nē + subjunctive = 'I fear that (something may happen)'. Timeō ut / nē nōn + subjunctive = 'I fear that not'. The nē is redundant after verbs of fearing.

rēs publica

Literally 'public thing', meaning the state or commonwealth. In Republican context it denotes the Roman state; in Cicero often contrasted with tyranny. Not simply 'republic' in the modern sense.

imperium

Power of command held by magistrates, especially consuls and praetors; also the empire. Context distinguishes military authority from territorial empire. Related: imperātor, imperāre.

bellum gerere

Idiom meaning 'to wage war'. Gerō, gerere, gessī, gestum also means carry, manage, conduct. Other idioms: cōnsilium capere (form a plan), castra movēre (break camp).

caput

Polysemous noun: head (body part), leader or chief person, capital city, and in legal texts the citizen's status. Context and modifiers decide the sense.

Prepositions with ablative

ā/ab (from, by agent), cum (with), dē (down from, about), ex/ē (out of), in (in, on), prō (for, in front of), sine (without), sub (under). Memorise case government.

Prepositions with accusative

ad (to, toward), adversus (against), ante (before), apud (at, among), circum (around), contrā (against), inter (between), per (through), post (after), propter (because of), trāns (across).

Translating accusative+infinitive

Render as Croatian 'da + clause'. Present infinitive = same time as main verb; perfect infinitive = earlier; future infinitive = later. Keep subject in accusative as Croatian nominative.

Ablative absolute in Croatian

Translate as a dependent clause: 'kad je grad bio zauzet' or 'nakon što je grad zauzet'. The ablative noun is subject of that clause; the participle carries voice and tense.

Latin word order

Latin is inflectional, so order is flexible. Default: subject first, verb last. Emphasis comes from position (first/last). Croatian requires SVO; reorder while preserving emphasis where possible.

Particles enim, autem, igitur

Enim = 'naime' (for, indeed); autem = 'pak/međutim' (however, but); igitur = 'dakle' (therefore). They are postpositive: they never begin a sentence in Latin prose.

Ab Urbe conditā

Dating formula 'from the founding of the City' (753 BC). To convert AUC year N to BC: 753 − N. For AD dates, subtract 753 from the AUC year. Used by Livy and historians.

Finding the main verb

In each Latin sentence, locate the finite verb (indicative or subjunctive) that is not inside a subordinate clause. Its subject and tense anchor the translation of the whole sentence.

Historic present

Present-tense verbs used in past narrative for vividness (e.g., dīcit, venit). In Croatian translate as past tense; do not shift the narrative into the present.

Pronoun reference tracking

Is, ille, hic, ipse, and quī usually refer to the most recently mentioned noun of matching gender and number. Confirm by agreement before assigning a referent.

Rhetorical questions

Questions like Quid? Quō usque? Quam diū? are emphatic statements, not requests for information. Translate as assertions or exclamations, not as literal questions.

Roman founding date

753 BC, traditional date of Romulus' founding of Rome. The Republic begins 509 BC; Augustus' principate 27 BC; Western Empire ends AD 476. These dates anchor chronology questions.

Cursus honorum

Sequence of public offices: quaestor, aedile, praetor, consul; censorship and dictatorship were extraordinary. Minimum ages and intervals were regulated by law from the 2nd century BC.

Roman domus layout

Townhouse with atrium (reception hall), tablinum (office), peristylium (colonnaded garden), cubicula (bedrooms), culina (kitchen). Insulae were multi-storey apartment blocks for poorer residents.

Roman baths

Thermae sequence: apodyterium (changing room), tepidarium (warm), caldarium (hot), frigidarium (cold), palaestra (exercise yard). Public baths were central to daily social life.

Vergil's Aeneid

Epic in 12 books, dactylic hexameter, unfinished at Vergil's death (19 BC). Themes: pietas, fatum, founding of Rome. Aeneas flees Troy and reaches Latium; model for Roman identity.

Cicero In Catilinam I

Speech delivered 63 BC in the Senate against Catiline. Opens 'Quō usque tandem abutēre, Catilīna, patientiā nostrā?' Features rhetorical questions, apostrophe, anaphora, and clausulae.

Caesar De Bello Gallico

Seven books (58–52 BC) plus eighth by Hirtius. Third-person commentarii style; opens 'Gallia est omnis dīvīsa in partēs trēs'. Clear periodic sentences, ethnographic excursus.

Ovid Metamorphoses

15 books in dactylic hexameter, completed by AD 8. Continuous narrative of transformations from creation to Ovid's day. Themes: love, violence, art, and change; influential on later European literature.