Some say Latin is a dead language, but all Latin teachers will tell you otherwise. For the purposes of this lesson, I need not convince you to enjoy Latin, because if you didn't, you wouldn't be here. So, I will not debate whether the language is living or dead. I will instead tell you: if Latin is considered a living language, you must know how to greet people. Here is a list of phrases, and their translations. Practice them with a partner. Note: (m) and (f) here mean "masculine" and "feminine". In Latin, a woman wouldn't say "sum fessus". She would say "sum fessa", since that is the feminine form. This will be expanded upon later. The words in the list after "Quid agis?" and before "sum..." are adverbs, and therefore do not have genders.
| Salvē! | "Hello", literally "be well!", to one person. |
| Salvēte! | "Hello", literally "be well!", to more than one person. |
| Quid nomen est tibi? | "What is your name?", or literally, "What name is to you?" |
| Mihi nomen est... | "My name is..." |
| Quid agis? | "How are you doing?" |
| Optime | "Great", "The best" |
| Bene | "Well" |
| Mediōcriter | "Mediocre", "Okay" |
| Male | "Badly" |
| Pessime | "Very badly", "The worst" |
| Sum... | "I am..." |
| Fessus (m), fessa (f) | "Tired" |
| Aeger (m), aegra (f) | "Sick" |
| Īratus (m), īrata (f) | "Angry" |
| Quaenum est tempestas hodie? | "How is the weather today?" |
| Hodie sol lucet. | "Today the sun shines." |
| Est calidum. | "It is hot." |
| Est frigidum. | "It is cold." |
| Hodie pluit. | "Today it is raining." |
| Valē! | "Farewell!", to one person. |
| Valēte! | "Farewell!", to more than one person. |
It would be improper to give you these phrases without any pronunciation help. Here is how Latin pronunctiation works:
In Latin, there is one accent mark. It is called the macron (¯). It can be put on all vowels - ā, ī, ō, ū, ȳ. Really it just makes the vowel long.
a - alike, idea
ā - father
e - pet
ē - hay
i - pit
ī - seen
o - hot
ō - go, no
u - put
ū - goose
y - lyric
ȳ - pyramid
c - "k", as in cat
ch - "kh", as in chasm
g - "g", as in go
gn - "ngn", as in hangnail
i - "y", as in yak. Sometimes you will see a j, but this is in later latin. Ex: Iulius to Julius.
ph - "p", with a slight breath. The "h" sound in Latin is mostly just a silent breath after a consonant. Not really voiced. Compare to the ' symbol in ancient Greek.
r - "r", as in read, but roll it, like the Spanish word toro.
v - "w", as in valē. The v in Latin is basically the same as the u, so you are really saying: "uale!", but we hear it more as a "w" in English.
ae - eye
au - ow
ei - weigh
eu - Europe
oe - boy
ui - we
Some macrons may be left out by accident. It is more important that your dictionary and/or this website has them, as they are important in verbs, than it is that you are able to remember every single one. Once you have listened to a Latin speaker, the macrons will become easier to predict, based on pronunciation.