Praxis Latin flashcards
Praxis Latin · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Ablative absolute
- A noun or pronoun plus a participle (or a second noun/adjective) in the ablative, grammatically detached from the main clause; translated as a subordinate clause with its own subject.
- Indirect statement
- Accusative subject plus infinitive after verbs of saying, thinking, or perceiving; the infinitive tense shows time relative to the main verb.
- Purpose clause
- ut or ne plus subjunctive expressing the goal of the main action; quo replaces ut before a comparative.
- Result clause
- ut or ut non plus subjunctive, usually signaled by tam, ita, tantus, talis, or adeo in the main clause.
- Indirect question
- An interrogative word such as quis, quid, cur, or ubi followed by a subjunctive verb; the subjunctive is required regardless of the main verb's tense.
- Fear clause
- ne plus subjunctive after verbs of fearing means 'that something may happen'; ut or ne non means 'that something may not happen.'
- Passive periphrastic
- Gerundive plus a form of esse expressing obligation or necessity; the person obligated stands in the dative of agent.
- Dactylic hexameter
- Six-foot meter of dactyls (long-short-short) or spondees (long-long); the fifth foot is almost always a dactyl and the sixth a spondee.
- Genitive singular marker
- The genitive singular ending identifies the declension: -ae first, -i second, -is third, -us fourth, -ei fifth.
- Principal parts
- The four forms (amo, amare, amavi, amatus) that supply the present, infinitive, perfect, and perfect passive participle stems for all tense formation.
- Deponent verbs
- Verbs passive in form but active in meaning, such as loquor, loqui, locutus sum; they still form a future active participle.
- Sequence of tenses
- Primary main verbs take present or perfect subjunctive; secondary main verbs take imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive in subordinate clauses.
- Gerundive
- A future passive participle expressing obligation or necessity; with esse it forms the passive periphrastic construction.
- Dative with special verbs
- Verbs such as impero, pareo, persuadeo, noceo, faveo, credo, and studeo take a dative object rather than an accusative.
- Ablative of comparison
- The second item in a comparison stands in the ablative without quam after a comparative adjective; with quam it takes the same case as the first item.
- Supine
- A verbal noun from the fourth principal part: the accusative in -um after verbs of motion expresses purpose, and the ablative in -u follows certain adjectives.
- Relative pronoun agreement
- Qui, quae, quod agrees with its antecedent in gender and number but takes its case from its function within the relative clause.
- Irregular verb fero
- Fero, ferre, tuli, latus is irregular across all four principal parts; its compounds follow the same pattern.
- Founding of Rome
- Traditional date 753 BCE under Romulus; the Republic begins 509 BCE with the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus.
- Cursus honorum
- The sequence of Republican magistracies: quaestor, aedile, praetor, consul, censor; the dictatorship was an extraordinary office limited to six months.
- Punic Wars
- Three wars against Carthage: 264-241 BCE, 218-201 BCE with Hannibal and Scipio at Zama, and 149-146 BCE ending in Carthage's destruction.
- Ides of March
- March 15, 44 BCE, the date of Julius Caesar's assassination by a conspiracy of senators led by Brutus and Cassius.
- Augustan settlement
- In 27 BCE Octavian received the title Augustus and a constitutional settlement of tribunician power and maius imperium, beginning the principate.
- Roman social orders
- Patricians, plebeians, equites, senatorial order, freedmen, and slaves; clientela bound patrons and clients in reciprocal obligation.
- Roman calendar markers
- Kalends on the 1st, Nones on the 5th or 7th, and Ides on the 13th or 15th; March, May, July, and October have Nones on the 7th and Ides on the 15th.
- Pompeii destruction
- Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, preserving inscriptions, graffiti, and household layout.
- Comprehensible input
- Approaches that front-load high-frequency vocabulary and sheltered grammar before explicit paradigm drilling, supporting meaning before form.
- Backward design
- Identify the target reading skill, then design the assessment, then plan daily exercises that build toward that skill.
- Formative assessment in Latin
- Sight translation with targeted syntax questions, vocabulary retrieval quizzes, and scansion checks used to guide instruction rather than assign grades.
- Sheltered grammar sequencing
- Deferring complex syntax such as the subjunctive until students control all indicative tenses and the five declensions, or scaffolding heavily if introduced earlier.
- Differentiation in Latin
- Tiered texts at two syntactic levels, glossed vocabulary, sentence-chunking, and color-coded case endings support mixed-ability classes.
- Scansion teaching sequence
- Mark the final two feet, treat the fifth foot as a dactyl, resolve ambiguous vowels by position, then check the caesura.