LC Latin cheat sheet

Identify the main finite verb of each sentence first; subordinate clauses hang off it, so locate it before parsing anything else.

Prose word order is information structure, not English order: the first and last words of a clause carry emphasis, and a delayed verb usually signals suspense or a periodic climax.

Ablative absolute = noun/pronoun + participle in the ablative with no governing preposition: 'his dictis' = 'after these things were said'; translate as a clause, not a phrase.

Indirect statement takes accusative + infinitive after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, perceiving: 'dicit Caesarem venisse' = 'he says Caesar came/has come'. Do not insert 'that' with a finite verb.

Indirect question uses a subjunctive verb, often with 'num', 'quid', 'cur', 'ubi': 'rogat quid faciat' = 'he asks what he is doing'.

Purpose clauses: 'ut/ne' + subjunctive; negative purpose may also be 'quo minus' or 'ne...quidem' constructions - check whether 'ut' follows a verb of happening ('accidit ut'), which makes it a result clause.

Result clauses: 'ut' + subjunctive, signalled by 'tam', 'tantus', 'ita', 'adeo', 'sic' in the main clause; translate 'so...that'.

Temporal 'cum' + imperfect/pluperfect subjunctive = 'when/since/although'; 'cum' + indicative = simple time. Decide from sense and the presence of 'tamen' (concessive) or causal logic.

Historical infinitive (present infinitive used as finite verb in narrative, e.g. 'milites pugnare') translates as an imperfect: 'the soldiers fought/were fighting'.

Scan by marking the final foot first: hexameter ends with a dactyl or spondee plus the fixed final foot (- ◡ ◡ | - -); work backwards to find the main caesura.

Dactylic hexameter: six feet, each a dactyl (- ◡ ◡) or spondee (- -); the fifth foot is almost always a dactyl, and a spondaic fifth line (spondee in foot 5) is a marked, rare effect.

Elegiac couplet: a hexameter followed by a pentameter whose fixed pattern is - ◡ ◡ | - ◡ ◡ | - ‖ - ◡ ◡ | - ◡ ◡ | -; the pentameter's two halves each end in a single long syllable.

Elision: a final vowel or vowel + m is suppressed before a word beginning with a vowel or h; mark it and do not count it in scansion.

Hiatus is avoided except at strong pauses; if you need hiatus to make the metre work, re-check your vowel quantities.

Enjambment carries meaning: when a clause runs past the line end, the postponed word is usually emphatic - preserve that emphasis in English word order where possible.

Hyperbaton (interlocked word order, e.g. adjective–noun–verb–adjective) is a stylistic signal; restore the natural English order first, then decide whether to keep any delay.

Vowel quantity traps: a vowel before 'gn' or before another vowel is normally long by position only in specific cases; a vowel followed by two consonants (or x, z) is long by position, except before a mute + liquid (b/c/d/g/p/t + l/r).

Choriambic and other lyric metres appear in Horace's Odes: identify the metre from the first stanza's fixed pattern before translating, since word division often crosses feet.

Build a character and event map for each prescribed section (who does what to whom, in what order); comprehension questions usually test causal links, not isolated vocabulary.

Track connectives as argument markers: 'itaque', 'igitur', 'tamen', 'autem', 'enim', 'quod' signal consequence, contrast, explanation, or cause - note which in your margin.

Note every speech introduction ('dixit', 'inquit', 'respondit') and whether the following clause is direct (indicative, quoted) or indirect (accusative + infinitive, or subjunctive for questions/commands).

For set-text translation, keep proper names in Latin form or standard English form consistently; examiners penalise invented equivalents.

Identify rhetorical figures by name when explaining effect: tricolon, anaphora, chiasmus, asyndeton, polysyndeton, praeteritio, apostrophe.

Distinguish narrator's comment from characters' words; questions about authorial stance require you to attribute a view to the narrator, not to a speaker.

Watch for 'historic' tenses: imperfect sets a scene, perfect advances the plot, pluperfect supplies prior background - mismatching them in translation loses marks for nuance.

For 'how does the author create tension/emphasis' questions, cite a specific Latin word or construction plus its effect in one sentence; unsupported generalities score poorly.

Identify speaker and addressee for every passage before answering: in epic and elegy, apostrophe, simile, and ekphrasis shift the frame of reference.

Similes work by point of comparison, not by every detail: state the tenor (what is described) and vehicle (the image) and the single quality they share.

Ekphrasis and prophecy are usually thematic mirrors: note what the embedded description foreshadows about the main narrative.

In elegy, note the servitium amoris, militia amoris, and exclusus amator motifs and where the poet inverts or ironises them.

In Virgil's Aeneid, track pietas versus furor as the organising opposition; in Horace, track the shift from public to private address within an ode.

Metrical effects to name: spondaic line for weight/slowness, dactylic runs for speed, elision for smoothness, hiatus or strong caesura for emphasis.

Word position is meaning: the first and last words of a line, and words straddling the caesura, are usually the emphatic ones.

When translating, keep the tense and mood of the Latin: a subjunctive in a relative clause may be causal, concessive, or characteristic - decide from context and mark your choice.

Anchor every paragraph to named textual evidence: author, work, book/line or section, and a short Latin quotation or close paraphrase.

A defensible thesis states a contestable claim plus the criterion of judgement (e.g. 'Virgil presents pietas as costly rather than triumphant, shown by...').

Structure: thesis, three or four evidence-driven body paragraphs each with a counter-consideration, then a conclusion that revisits the criterion, not a summary.

For 'to what extent' prompts, concede the strongest opposing evidence explicitly, then show why the balance favours your reading.

Distinguish literary technique from content: a paragraph that only retells plot earns little; link technique (simile, ring composition, apostrophe) to meaning.

Use precise critical vocabulary (characterisation, focalisation, intertextuality, ring composition, pathetic fallacy) but define it through the text, not abstractly.

Compare prescribed authors only where the prompt invites it; otherwise keep the argument within the named text to avoid losing focus.

Time budgeting: roughly one-fifth of the allotted time on planning and thesis, the rest on paragraphs; leave time to reread for unsupported claims.

Noun: identify declension from genitive singular ending (-ae, -i, -is, -us, -ei) before giving case, number, gender.

Verb: parse by four principal parts - present, infinitive, perfect, supine - since stem changes (e.g. 'ago, agere, egi, actus') determine tense formation.

Deponent verbs are passive in form, active in meaning: 'loquitur' = 'he speaks'; 'conatus est' = 'he tried'. Semi-deponents ('audeo, audere, ausus sum') are active in present system.

Subjunctive forms to recognise: present ('amet', 'moneat', 'regat', 'audiat', 'capiat'), imperfect (infinitive + personal ending), perfect (perfect stem + '-eri-'), pluperfect (perfect infinitive + endings).

Irregular imperatives: 'dic', 'duc', 'fac', 'fer' (not 'dice', 'duce', 'face', 'fere'); 'esto'/'estote' are future imperatives.

Gerund vs gerundive: gerund is a verbal noun (neuter singular, active); gerundive is a passive adjective of obligation ('delenda est Carthago' = 'Carthage must be destroyed').

Supine: accusative in '-um' after verbs of motion ('ad spectatum venit'), ablative in '-u' after adjectives ('mirabile dictu').

Common vocabulary traps: 'imperium' (command/power, not 'empire' in all contexts), 'virtus' (courage/excellence), 'fides' (faith/loyalty/trust), 'res' (matter/affair/situation), 'ratio' (reason/method/account).

Ablative uses to distinguish: means, agent (with 'a/ab'), manner (with 'cum'), comparison (no preposition), separation, time, place where (with 'in'), and absolute.