Memorizing Latin vocab

[blondeviolin]

We're making flash cards for my daughter's Latin vocabulary. She can remember the base of the words, but has a harder time remembering all of the principal parts. The book says it's important to memorize these as well. What's the best way? Just add them to the front of the flash card and drill English to Latin and Latin to English while requiring principal parts?

 

FWIW, she has no problem really translating the small passages to or from Latin. She does groan about it, but not knowing all of the principal parts doesn't seem to hinder her...yet. (She's working slowly through LP1.)

[Tranquility7]

What is LP1?

 

I highly recommend Anki flashcards. I have oodles and may have the vocab you need, depending on the program you are using.

 

For learning principle parts to a *recall* level (as opposed to simply a recognition level, which is easier but less useful), we first learn the Lation-to-English. The card gives you the principle parts, which you *recite out loud*, and then respond with the meaning in English. This is easy and gets you familiar with the principle parts.

 

Then to learn to *recall* the principle parts, we learn the E-to-L. That is harder, and our E-to-L lags our learning in L-to-E (sometimes even by several chapters, which has been fine, in our experience). I introduce the E-to-L cards only after we know those L-to-E cards really really well (I think it is analogous to a child's reading being ahead of their spelling). To actually get them in our brains, DS and I have Anki decks that are just our E-to-L cards. For each card, the card shows us the English, then we *write down* our answer. Over time and repetition, we gradually get all the parts and macrons and such. It really isn't that hard, but the *writing down* is a critical part of the process in our experience.

 

[Tanaqui]

The book is correct - it IS necessary to remember all the principal parts. We don't do much of this in English because English isn't a highly inflected language, but it's crucial in Latin.

 

I'm sorry I can't help you with memorization tricks - unfortunately for me, I hardly ever have had to memorize anything. I just remember them. Useful in school, but horrible when trying to teach! I just wanted to reiterate that you should definitely not question the book on this point :)

Edited March 13, 2017 by Tanaqui

[2_girls_mommy]

We recite them out loud at least once a week. 

[The Governess]

We drill them English to Latin, all 4 principle parts. I only drill Latin to English if there are multiple English meanings to remember for a single Latin word. She should also know what the regular pattern is for each conjugation, and which verbs are exceptions. That will help a lot.

 

Just keep drilling! You will be glad down the road that you spent time on learning all the parts now. ;)

[Miss Tick]

We use Anki too. It is brilliant. I put the four principal parts on one side, the English on the other. If you can't recite all four parts you mark the card as hard or "again" until you start to remember it. If it shows up later and you've forgotten it, you just click hard or again and it does it to you more frequently.

Edited March 13, 2017 by SusanC

[KrissiK]

It's easier if you try to make it some kind of a chant. The principle parts for first conjugation irregular verbs really do well in a chant. Second conjugation there are a ton, you just have to memorize them. But if you do recitations every day, and go over the vocabulary cards every day it'll sink in. Repetitio mater studiorum est. Repetition is the mother of learning. We do recitations every day.

 

We use Memoria Press curriculum, btw. They tend to chant their recitations.

Edited March 14, 2017 by KrissiK

[cintinative]

We chant using the CD once a week and my kids use Quizlet every day to review them while saying them aloud. The Quizlet cards we use also have audio files so they can check their pronunciation.

[ScoutTN]

Chant and Quizlet

[blondeviolin]

We chant using the CD once a week and my kids use Quizlet every day to review them while saying them aloud. The Quizlet cards we use also have audio files so they can check their pronunciation.

Latin Prep CD or for a different program?

 

She's really loving LP so I don't want to move her from it I just want to have all of that stuff really stick in her head.

[blondeviolin]

I guess it will just be flash cards and chants. She does really well if I can make it silly or different so we'll work on it.

[SparklyUnicorn]

We chanted and/or sang them.  That worked well for us.  I also made posters and put them on the wall.

 

Gosh that feels so long ago.  *sigh*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cintinative]

Latin Prep CD or for a different program?

 

She's really loving LP so I don't want to move her from it I just want to have all of that stuff really stick in her head.

 

I'm sorry--I meant the chant CD that came with LfC

[cintinative]

I guess it will just be flash cards and chants. She does really well if I can make it silly or different so we'll work on it.

 

If you can set it up in Quizlet (or look for someone else's) there are games you can play in there like matching and something that is sort of like Space Invaders where you  have to type in the words.