Latin/Adverbs Lesson 1

Salvēte omnēs! Welcome back to Latin for Wikiversity. Here you can peruse a new lesson in Latin, in a simple format. If you would like to catch up, you can find a directory of lessons, a classified vocabulary list, and Memrise courses at the links on the right.

This lesson will focus on adverbs.

Old and new vocabulary
We’ve already encountered many adverbs:

As in many languages, there is a certain amount of fluidity between adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions; and in Latin, some cases of nouns are essentially adverbial. Parsing this out completely for you is above my pay grade... just be aware that dictionaries and texts may occasionally vary on classifying these words, and some can be used in multiple ways. To make it more confusing, it is fairly common in Latin syntax for adjectives to be used where we would use adverbs in English, e.g. Tutus domum venit. = He comes home safely (literally- He comes home, safe).

Formation of adverbs is usually but not always related to the adjective form if there is one. 1st/2nd declension adjectives, like malus, a, um (bad) tend to have an adverbial form ending in –e: male = badly. 3rd declension adjectives like fortis, e (strong, brave) tend to have an adverbial form ending in –(i)ter: fortiter = strongly, bravely. But of course there are many, many adverbs that do not follow these “rules.”

Practice
Here’s a fun song on Youtube that has some of these adverbs, plus animals and even onomatopoeias: Horatius villam habet I hope you enjoy it! I should be back next week with more adverbs.