PARTS OF SPEECH
Latin, as English, has eight parts of speech:
. NOUN
. PRONOUN
. ADJECTIVE
. VERB
. ADVERB
. CONJUNCTION
. PREPOSITION
. INTERJECTION
Noun - the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.
. Gender: In English gender has faded for most nouns, except for special uses
(e.g., ships). Latin retains gender distinctions for all nouns, some natural (e.g.,
puella) and some grammatical (terra).
. Nouns are sometimes called substantives because they were once thought to
denote the substantia (essential nature) of a person or thing.
Pronoun - a word used in place of a noun.
. Personal pronoun - I, you, he, she, it, they, etc.
. Reflexive pronoun - refers to subject of sentence (He saw himself).
. Interrogative pronoun - Who, whom, whose, what?
. Demonstrative pronoun - This, that, these, those.
. Relative pronoun - Who, etc. (in subordinate clauses).
. Possessive pronoun - My, your, his, etc.
. Indefinite pronoun - Some(one), some(thing).
Adjective - a word that describes a noun or pronoun.
. Descriptive - terra pulchra (a beautiful land).
. Possessive - mater tua (your mother).
. Interrogative - quae dea . . . ? (what goddess . . . ?)
. Demonstrative - hoc consilium (this plan).
. Indefinite - aliqua spes (some hope).
Verb - a word that expresses an action or condition.
. Transitive verb - takes a direct object to complete its meaning. It necessarily
affects some person or thing or produces some result. Thus, the statements
interficio (I kill) or aedificio (I build) are not complete until it is clear whom I kill or
what I build.
. The person or thing affected or effected by the action of the verb is the
direct object and is always in the accusative case.
. Intransitive verb - does not require a direct object to complete its meaning. The
action of the verb does not "pass over" (transire) to another person or thing.
Thus, sum (I am), sto (I stand), curro (I run), cado (I am falling), sol lucet (the sun
is shining) would all be nonsensical if given a direct object.
. But many verbs can be both transitive a