NOTE: while this advice pertains to teaching students in a classroom setting, it can be applied equally to the home school. Adult students who are teaching themselves Latin can also benefit by following the method shown here.

“The teaching of the declensions involves two main steps: (1) the presentation of models, which are to be memorised and (2) abundant practice to reduce such models to easy recognition and use. The student can form or analyse most of the cases of Latin nouns he will meet by means of one key rule and two supplementary rules.

The key rule is, “The model to be followed and the stem are determined primarily from the genitive case.”

  The two secondary rules are:

“In the second declension the ending of the nominative (-us or -um) must be considered.”

“In the third declension the gender and the rules for genitive endings ( -um or

-ium ) determine the model to be followed.”

  The following method of teaching the declensions has been found to be very successful.

1. Introduce the idea of declension. The beginner is often confused by the very notion of declension, since it appears to have no counterpart in English ….

2. Present the model. Stress the stem, the endings, the meanings. At the same time, present the rules for gender and the notes that accompany the declension.

3. Call for the declension of similar words once the model has been seen and the rules and notes are understood.

4. Require students to form individual cases as you name them and to identify and translate their individual cases.

5. Give exercises in which the students must analyze and translate such cases as they occur in phrases and sentences. this implies a mastery of the rules governing case usages. Such rules of syntax are introduced gradually; for example, the dative of indirect object is introduced as soon as the second declension is learned, but other uses of the dative are explained much later.

6. Work for immediate recognition of case forms at sight and for quick recall for use in expression. This ability grows slowly with students, but careful teaching in the beginning will help to give the student a growing sense of power and a corresponding eagerness to improve.

7. Review the declension previously studied. After a new form has been introduced and mastered, present exercises in which the student is required to determine the model to be followed.

The command of forms and the understanding of the relationships expressed by these forms should always be kept in view. The following methods have been found helpful as supplementary to the formal training and drilling explained above:

1. Teach the student to reread Latin sentences after he has analyzed them with a view to associating the meaning directly with Latin words in the Latin order.

2. Teach him occasionally to read for comprehension in the Latin order, taking a sentence phrase by phrase. The analytical method will serve as an accurate check on his comprehension and translation.

3. Use a bit of Latin in classroom situations, e.g., ita, non, bene, quid? cur?

4. Have the student memorize and become familiar with good Latin sentences and phrases, such as the mottoes, selections from the Mass, and so forth. Emphasize that he should try to understand these directly, without a process of translation.

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-behind-books-261909/