Latin For Dummies

As with most Dummies books, it’s long on entertainment and cultural information and light but informative on Latin language information. Well written, interesting and decent for background information, you won’t walk away reading or speaking Latin, but you will have a better basis for learning it.

This is not the book you are going to learn latin from. If you are in for that kind of material you had better try  Teach Yourself Beginner's Latin Audiopackage  if you are a beginner who would also like to listen to a good approximation of the classical pronunciation, or  Latin Via Ovid: A First Course Second Edition , if you are beginner but more ambitious, let's say your purpose is to read Harry Potter in Latin ( Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Latin Edition) .But back to this book, which is a kind of collage of the Latin language: it lists the different areas of life where you can actually meet Latin words and expressions, helps you with cultural background, Latin jokes and short dialogues and yes, gives some elements of the language. To sum it up, a delicious side dish for learners of Latin or a cheese-board for those who are simply interested in classical education after a good meal.

I bought the book in the hopes that I would be able to join a 2nd semester college class in Latin (I am unable to attend the 1st semester). In some ways the book is a little too cute (I suppose some people would appreciate this, though). It spends more time than necessary explaining certain basic things (like what it means that an adjective needs to agree in number & gender), & not enough time explaining other things that aren't clear. There are also quite a few typos in the book -- should have a good copy editor...

I’m finding this book both helpful and interesting. Not a comprehensive text, of course.Found a couple mistakes: Saint Jerome did not translate the Bible from Hebrew but mostly from Greek. And we don’t use the Julian calendar, but the revised Julian by St Gregory the Great—the Gregorian one.

I have formally studied several languages in my life (Spanish, Koine Greek, Hebrew, Italian), but I have always wanted an understanding of Latin. So I'm chipping away at it, using "Latin for Dummies." It is a very useful tool to open my mind to the language. Once I have finish this, I plan to procede to an actual Latin course, but experience had taught me I need a good overview before doing that. In addition, the book offers a lot of historical and cultural insights, which brighten the material. I heartily recomment "Latin for Dummies", with the suggestion that one gets out of language studies exactly what one puts in them.

This particular series of books is a must have for anyone looking to cram facts as quickly as possible. I will definitely be buying more from this published series.

This book is designed for absolute beginners. Whether you're interested in mastering Latin language, or you'd like to get better insight in English, given the fact that more than half of English words have Latin roots, this book will introduce you to Latin in a light-hearted way.You'll enjoy the book from cover to cover, as you learn not only some basics of Latin language, but also read many interesting stories about Roman customs and culture.You will learn about some well-known writers, as well as the common Latin terms used in law, medicine, zoology, botany and church.The authors have made sure not only to help you learn something, but also to keep you entertained with many humorous tidbits and an addition of fun and games to test your knowledge.

This has been a great refresher and check for my proper gender usage, conjugation of verbs etc. It is a pleasant surprise how my four years of Latin study conjure back after 50 years as I reference this book.

The book arrived much quicker than I expected and it makes an excellent companion piece to my other Latin text books, grammars and dictionaries. However, I sat down to read it over the weekend and was taken aback by the assertion that each noun has five cases, when every other textbook on the subject I have read since first studying Latin in 1968 lists six (nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative and ablative). I was also confused by the move of the genitive case to behind nominative when it normally comes after accusative, and by some of the pronunciation suggestions. Despite its teaching, I will continue to pronounce magnus as magnus, not as mangus. Latin can be baffling enough at times without introducing inconsistency.

This book is well titled. Despite reading the other negative reviews, like a dummy, I still made the purchase. It does have interesting points and may well be useful for someone who already has some knowledge of Latin. However, for a complete beginner it is far too complicated and technical. Had I not recently worked my way through the excellent Getting Started With Latin by William E. Linney I would have been completely discouraged. Also, the format does not work well with Kindle - the numerous tables are difficult and fiddly to see. Finally, unless I’m completely out of my depth, the Fun and Games questions in Chapter 3 don’t match the given Appendix C answers! Confusing!!!

I bought this book as an introduction to Latin, and I felt that it covered the core grammar concepts very well (nouns,cases,verbs). The declensions are laid out in table form throughout the book. I personally wanted to learn grammar, translation and how to read Latin. I deemed it satisfactory but parts of the book are more geared towards fun facts and historical aspects, which is suitable for a more relaxed learner who is learning Latin for fun. These bits are more about the culture surrounding Latin rather than the language.

I studied Latin at school and felt I wanted to brush up on it.I like how individual chapters use the Latin language to illumine the various facets of Ancient Roman Life. But I doubt I could ever get to like the fish sauce called Garum, made essentially of rotting fish, that the Romans so favoured to cover meat which wasn't quite so fresh!

A superb book, especially for people who already know some Latin, like myself. As was the authors' aim, it can be used as an amusing bedtime book, just like some people use the Bible - just open it ANYWHERE, and enjoy reading it for a while.