GCSE Latin: Year 11 Unseen Latin Advice
1. Write out the endings of puella, servus, templum, mercator and nomen, and use them!
2. Write out the personal endings, active and passive.
3. Write out the introduction to the passage.
4. Look in advance for the following constructions:
- Relative Clauses (qui, quae, quod etc meaning who, which, what etc)
- Result Clauses (so something that...) "Trigger T Words"
e.g. illeg erat tam laetus ut rideret = He was so happy that he laughed.
- Purpose Clauses (in order to...)
e.g. ad urbem veni ut panem emerem = I went to town in order to buy bread.
- Indirect Commands (I told him to do something)
e.g. militibus imperavit ut captives custodirent = He ordered the soldiers to guard the prisoners
- Verbs of saying/thinking followed by the accusative + infinitive. An Indirect Statement.
e.g. dixit Caecilium ridere = He said Caecilius to be laughing, or a better translation = He said that Caecilius was laughing
- Ablative Absolute (with something having been done/with something happening)
e.g. servis interfectis, Salvius domum rediit = With the slaves having been killed, Salvius returned hom. In better English this can be translated as After the slaves had been killed, Salvius returned home.
- Genetive of the Present Participle (-ntium ending = people doing something)
e.g. turba spectantium = a crowd of people watching.
5. Remember tenses, and how to recognise them:
-ba-, -re- = was/were
-ra-, -isse- = had
-v-, -u-, -x- and others = -ed
e.g. illeg erat tam laetus ut rideret = He was so happy that he laughed.
e.g. ad urbem veni ut panem emerem = I went to town in order to buy bread.
e.g. militibus imperavit ut captives custodirent = He ordered the soldiers to guard the prisoners
e.g. dixit Caecilium ridere = He said Caecilius to be laughing, or a better translation = He said that Caecilius was laughing
e.g. servis interfectis, Salvius domum rediit = With the slaves having been killed, Salvius returned hom. In better English this can be translated as After the slaves had been killed, Salvius returned home.
e.g. turba spectantium = a crowd of people watching.