Latin for Beginners by Benjamin D'Ooge

For our own records as well as for your information, we are offering a series of book reviews. Mrs. Rolling is beginning this series with Latin book reviews. If you have other suggestions, please do not hesitate to comment on these posts. It is always exciting to find out about new books!

Latin for Beginners by Benjamin D'Ooge

• Quality: Great! Solid English-Latin and Latin-English exercises.


• Ease of Use for the layman: Difficult


• Age Recommendation: any age so long as the student has studied grammar and the parent has a good handle on grammar


• Price: FREE download of book and answer key at http://www.textkit.com/

Mrs. Rollings Comments: This book was designed for instructors who are trained in Latin, and it was especially designed for the classroom setting. The Answer Key at http://www.textkit.com/ was made in recent years in response to those learning with the book at home. The Answer Key does not include answers to the Reviews in the back of the textbook. The most common frustration people have who tackle this book alone is with the language. What does "copula" mean? What about "predicate nominative"? In the hands of a good Latin instructor or a parent averse in grammar, this book is golden; otherwise, I would suggest other Latin programs.
What I love about the program is that it focuses on the mastery of 600 Latin words in the first two parts. In addition, D'Ooge presents the grammar in such a way that students can beginwriting in Latin from the start! Since my classes focus on composition and real translation, this is a great aspect of the book. Students want to know how to write in the passive voice much earlier than other books present the passive voice, so D'Ooge offers a balance, teaching present, imperfect, and future tenses in the active and passive voices before introducing the perfect tenses.