Latin!!

We are learning Latin!! I am so excited! There is so much use for Latin even though it is a dead language.
One of the reasons... 90% of your words, 2 syllables or more are derivatives of Latin. "The word derivative is itself a derivative, which comes from the Latin words de (down from) and rivus (river, stream). Thiis means that a derivative is a word that flows down or off a river of... words!" How interesting, huh!!?

Another reason, my favorite :), is once you learn to speak and read/spell Latin you will be able to understand English all the easier. When one knows that video/ visum means see, or to see in English, you can read a word like television and know it means 'a machine for seeing things that are far away' [tele is Greek and means~ far away]
Invisible is another word...'in' is Latin and means not . So invisible would mean 'not to be seen' or not able to be seen.
There are thousands of English word that come from Latin.

Our Latin class is mainly for Mama, my 2 older brothers, and myself, but my younger sibs are listening in and learning some too. It is so neat to learn all this as a family. We are using "Latin for Children," Primer A by Dr. Aron Larson and Dr. Christopher Perrin. There are DVDs and 'chant' CDs. It is very fun and informative.
Without looking, here is some of what I learned yesterday (our first class)...
amo~ I love
amas~ you love
amat~ he/she is loving
amamus~ we love
amatis~ ya'll love
amant~ we are loving
There is a little song for that and last night I drempt of it and literally saw the words in my sleep!! YAY! :)
There are 4 forms of Latin verbs. They are called the 4 Principal Parts, and are...
1. Present
2. Infinitive
3. perfect
4. Passive Participle
For the word amo (I love) the 4 Principle Parts are~
amo, amare, amavi, amatum
I didnt spell the last 3 right, so went back and retyped them correctly.
There is no 'w' in Latin. But the 'v' is pronounced as a 'w'. So 'amavi' is pronounced, amawee. Alot of the vowels aren't pronounced the same as in English. In that word, 'amavi' the 'i' is a long 'e'. They havent taught us why/ when/ ect. yet, we are just having to memorize the words now.
The Verbs:
amo, amare, amavi, amatum ~ I love, to love, I loved, loved (amateur)
do, dare, dadi, datum ~ I give, to give, I gave, given (donate)
intro, intrare,intravi, intatum ~ I enter, to enter, I entered, entered (introduction)
laboro, laborare, laboravi, laboratum ~ I work, to work I worked, worked (laboratory)
narro, narrare, narravi, narratum ~ I tell, to tell, I told, told (narrate)

Some nouns we learned yesterday are: (the 'ae' on the end of the second Latin words are pounced long 'i')
aqua, aquae ~ water (already knew :])
fabula, fabulae~ story
porta, portae~ gate
silva, silvae~ forest
terra, terrae~ earth (already knew :])