To give you a sense of how it works, I have pasted in the Lesson One below. Enjoy!
Lesson 1
1.1. Canō.
I sing.
This is a Latin verb, 1st-person singular. You can tell from the form of the verb itself that it is 1st-person singular: canō, (I) sing. You don't need to use the pronoun in Latin; the verb already tells you who the subject is.
The most common form of the verb you will see is 3rd-person singular: canit.
Vergilius canit. Vergil sings.
Canit. Sings — which can mean: (He) sings. (She) sings. (It) sings.
1.2. Canō virum.
(I) sing (the) man.
(I) sing (a) man.
Now the verb has an object: virum.
That is the accusative form of the noun vir, "man." This is the most common use of the accusative: it identifies the object of a verb.
See that -um ending? That is the same -m ending in the English pronoun "him," which is the accusative form of our pronoun "he." You use "him" when the pronoun is the object of a verb in English too: "I see him."
Notice that the Latin verb "sing" takes a direct object, Canō virum, while in English, we usually say "I sing of the man" or "I sing about the man." Whether or not a verb takes a direct object or instead is complemented by a prepositional phrase is what's called "idiom," a particular way of speaking. There's no reason why English "sing" takes a prepositional phrase (sing of, sing about), while Latin "sing" takes a direct object; those are just English and Latin idioms.
Notice also that Latin does not have use definite article ("the") or indefinite article ("a") like in English. If you are translating into English, you have to decide which aticle to use, but if you are just reading Latin (which is the goal!), you don't need to worry about how it would work in English. Just focus on how it works in Latin: Cano virum.
Here is another sentence you can make:
Vergilius canit virum. Vergil sings the man.
Now there is a subject, Vergilius, and a third-person verb to go with that subject: Vergilius canit.
Do you see the underlining below the first i in the name Vergilius? That is to indicate where to stress the word. I'll say more about word stress in the next lesson, but for now, just know that you stress the word on the GI: Vergilius.
The only words that have an underlined syllable are words that are three syllables or longer. If a word has just two syllables, it is stressed on the first syllable.
And here's something really fun: word order is (almost) completely free in Latin. So these are all possible sentences; I've marked the Subject, Verb, and Object to the right. English is almost always S-V-O, but Latin exploits all the possibilities:
Cano virum. V-O
Virum cano. O-V
Virum Vergilius canit. O-S-V
Virum canit Vergilius. O-V-S
Canit Vergilius virum. V-S-O
Canit virum Vergilius. V-O-S
Vergilius canit virum. S-V-O
Vergilius virum canit. S-O-V
In general, the most emphatic positions are the first and last position in a sentence or phrase.
This free word order is one of the most amazing things about Latin, and Vergil will exploit that freedom in his poetry to create all kinds of subtle effects that are impossible to reproduce in English.
1.3. Canō arma.
(I) sing (the) weapons.
(I) sing weapons.
Now the verb has a different object: arma.
This is the plural accusative form of the word arma, a word which is used only in the plural in Latin. Our English plural "arms" imitates this Latin word; "arms" in English means "weapons," just as arma in Latin means "weapons." (English "arms = weapons" has nothing to do with "arm = body part" — "arm," the body part, is a Germanic word, while "arms" and "to arm yourself with a weapon" come from Latin — so if you start thinking that Latin is weird, just remember how weird English is!)
Here are a few variations to practice with:
Arma cano.
Vergilius arma canit.
Canit Vergilius arma.
Arma canit Vergilius.
For example, you might say Arma canit Vergilius! if you were arguing with someone like this:
Vergilius virum canit. Vergil sings the man.
Haudquaquam! Arma Vergilius canit! No way! Vergil sings weapons!
1.4. Canō virum et arma.
I sing the man and weapons.
The conjunction et means "and." Just like English "and," et connects two grammatically equal things. For example, here it is connecting two objects:
Cano virum. Cano arma. = Cano virum et arma.
The most important thing to do when you see et is to make sure you know what two things it is connecting! In this short little sentence, that is obvious but, trust me, in longer Latin sentences, you will have to think carefully sometimes about just what et is connecting.
You can also see the word et in English in "etc." which stands for et cetera in Latin, "and other things." (The word cetera is a neuter plural word in Latin, just like arma is neuter plural; you'll learn more about gender in Latin later.)
So, here are some possible variations on Cano virum et arma, all of which are perfectly natural Latin sentences:
Virum cano et arma.
Virum et arma cano.
Arma et virum cano.
Arma cano et virum.
Cano arma et virum.
These options were all available to Vergil. As a poet, his choice was constrained to some degree by the meter of the poem, but in terms of the grammar, all these options were possible. And very soon you are going to see which option he chose!
1.5. Canō virum armaque.
I sing the man and weapons.
The word -que means the same thing as et, "and," but -que cannot stand by itself. Instead, it is an "enclitic," which means "leaner (clitic) - on (en)." As you can see, it has to "lean on" the word that comes before it:
armaque = et arma.
So the sentence Canō virum armaque means exactly the same as Canō virum et arma.
I've marked the stress on the first syllable, but there is some debate about this. In later Latin, the tendency was to always stress the syllable before -que, but no one is quite sure if that rule applied in classical Latin. I'll have more to say later about why there can be some doubt about just where to put the stress, and also about Latin pronunciation in general.
Read through these sentences so that you feel comfortable with -que:
Virum cano armaque.
Virum armaque cano.
Arma virumque cano.
Arma cano virumque.
Cano arma virumque.
When you are getting started with Latin, it is always a good idea to change -que into et, and then to ask yourself the same question you should always ask about et: exactly what two things is et connecting?
1.6. Arma virumque canō.
Weapons and the man I sing.
And there it is! Now you see the opening words of The Aeneid as Vergil composed them.
Now you have read the first three words of Vergil's Aeneid, or four if you count -que as its own word. Are you ready for Lesson 2? Here you go!
