Rating: Summary: Helpful, but not completely thorough. Review: My only complaints are that not ALL the forms of the verbs are included. Namely, these are the future imperatives and the future passive infinitives, because (quoting from the introduction), "This book is intended primarily for students in the early stages of their Latin studies." While this may not stop some buyers, it /does/ cheapen the product. However, it is very useful, and worth buying if you need help memorizing forms, looking for patterns, or just plain cheating.. even if the cover art is atrocious.
Rating: Summary: Great Source Review: One of the harder parts of the Latin language is verbs. This book gives you everything you would ever need to know about them, and displays them in an easy reference format. I can't imagine going through high school Latin without this handy guide close by.
Rating: Summary: Helps you get stuff done Review: The 501 [language] verbs series is as indispensable as a dictionary for anyone learning a foreign language, especially one with conjugations. Latin is the math of foreign languages, and, unlike certain foreign languages most of us took in High School, is full of authors quick to brag about the their skills obfuscating through this math. Say it with me, "Person, number, tense, voice, mood." Say it ten times fast and you'll be worthy of day one of high school Latin.
Rating: Summary: Helps you get stuff done Review: The 501 [language] verbs series is as indispensable as a dictionary for anyone learning a foreign language, especially one with conjugations. Latin is the math of foreign languages, and, unlike certain foreign languages most of us took in High School, is full of authors quick to brag about the their skills obfuscating through this math. Say it with me, "Person, number, tense, voice, mood." Say it ten times fast and you'll be worthy of day one of high school Latin.
Rating: Summary: When 201 Verbs is not enough... Review: The first year I studied Latin (using an early edition of Wheelock) I used the 201 Latin Verbs text, part of the same educational series as the 501 verbs series from Barrons. This book has more substance than that earlier volume, not merely from the 300 additional verbs, but also from additions to the text's introduction. Richard Prior (not the comedian) took the contributions of Joseph Wohlberg (whose 201 Latin Verbs I also own) and expanded and revised those with his own additions for this text.This is at heart the most basic of basic books. Each of the numbered pages 1-501 has one verb laid out in all its tenses, voices, moods, persons and numbers. The pages are laid out with Active Voice on the left (the most common voice found in Latin writing), and Passive Voice on the right. The page is broken into Mood - these include Indicative (the most direct form of address), Subjunctive, Imperative, and Infinitive. The verb tenses in each of these subsections is laid out in first, second and third person, singular and plural, in a chart. . The bottom of each page lists the participle forms, forms of verbs used as modifiers. There are also alternative forms of the verb, compound and related words, sample sentences showing context - these are not 'fake' sentences, but give the sources (Cicero, Horace, etc.). Each page has one verb dedicated to it. As Prior indicates, the series by Barrons has the limit of 501 verbs (an arbitrary but useful number) - but, in fact, since there are patterns for verbs (called conjugations), knowing one is often knowing them all; the exceptions to these rules for the various conjugations are certainly included, as are the strange verbs (sum, esse, to be, which ends up being strange in every language, and many others like eo, ire, to go). Some verbs are not fully developed - the authors explain that while there are theoretical constructs of verbs, sometimes we have no evidence that such tenses or constructions were ever used, and so these are omitted. Also, there are lots of verbs whose construction parallels each other precisely (many verbs are formed from prefixes being attached, much as languages like German also do); these verbs are parenthetically linked to other, similar verbs. There is an English-Latin index, and a Latin-English index at the end of the book. These indexes are handy, as is the Verb Form locator at the end. The word selection comes from frequency counts of verbs on Latin exams of the New York State Regents and other College Board entrance and/or placement examinations. There are few additions here - little grammar, no pronunciation, nothing by way of history. This is simply what it purports to be - a book of verbs. In that, it is very useful, and as I studied Latin beyond the first year, an invaluable aid.
Rating: Summary: When 201 Verbs is not enough... Review: The first year I studied Latin (using an early edition of Wheelock) I used the 201 Latin Verbs text, part of the same educational series as the 501 verbs series from Barrons. This book has more substance than that earlier volume, not merely from the 300 additional verbs, but also from additions to the text's introduction. Richard Prior (not the comedian) took the contributions of Joseph Wohlberg (whose 201 Latin Verbs I also own) and expanded and revised those with his own additions for this text. This is at heart the most basic of basic books. Each of the numbered pages 1-501 has one verb laid out in all its tenses, voices, moods, persons and numbers. The pages are laid out with Active Voice on the left (the most common voice found in Latin writing), and Passive Voice on the right. The page is broken into Mood - these include Indicative (the most direct form of address), Subjunctive, Imperative, and Infinitive. The verb tenses in each of these subsections is laid out in first, second and third person, singular and plural, in a chart. . The bottom of each page lists the participle forms, forms of verbs used as modifiers. There are also alternative forms of the verb, compound and related words, sample sentences showing context - these are not 'fake' sentences, but give the sources (Cicero, Horace, etc.). Each page has one verb dedicated to it. As Prior indicates, the series by Barrons has the limit of 501 verbs (an arbitrary but useful number) - but, in fact, since there are patterns for verbs (called conjugations), knowing one is often knowing them all; the exceptions to these rules for the various conjugations are certainly included, as are the strange verbs (sum, esse, to be, which ends up being strange in every language, and many others like eo, ire, to go). Some verbs are not fully developed - the authors explain that while there are theoretical constructs of verbs, sometimes we have no evidence that such tenses or constructions were ever used, and so these are omitted. Also, there are lots of verbs whose construction parallels each other precisely (many verbs are formed from prefixes being attached, much as languages like German also do); these verbs are parenthetically linked to other, similar verbs. There is an English-Latin index, and a Latin-English index at the end of the book. These indexes are handy, as is the Verb Form locator at the end. The word selection comes from frequency counts of verbs on Latin exams of the New York State Regents and other College Board entrance and/or placement examinations. There are few additions here - little grammar, no pronunciation, nothing by way of history. This is simply what it purports to be - a book of verbs. In that, it is very useful, and as I studied Latin beyond the first year, an invaluable aid.
Rating: Summary: Good for beginning Latin students but why only 501 verbs? Review: This book is a very good resource. I am a first year Latin student so far and I've used this book a lot. It's best use is for conjugation tests and learning new forms. Whenever I'm confussed about an ending for a verb, I look in this book. My only problem is why did they stop at 501? It gets frustrating when you can't find a certain verb and the selection isn't really the most useful verbs. Bottom line is that this book is good for people who are first getting into Latin but try getting a Latin dictionary too. Of course this shouldn't be a subsitute for learning the material.
Rating: Summary: Useful for Learners but not a Scholarly Reference Review: This book is useful for learners in that it sets out most of the forms of verbs, fully conjugated. However, the work is of doubtful scholarship. It contains many forms of Latin verbs that are unattested, and, moreover, no indication is made of such instances. Therefore, students of Latin would find this book useful, with the proviso that the Latin presented in the book is not entirely historical, but it is next to useless for classicists.
Rating: Summary: great book. well worth the money Review: This book was great. It really helped me with my college latin class. One great feature of this book is a section in the back that has strange forms of verbs listed alphabeticaly. When you are reading latin and you come across something you dont recognize, this section can help you figure out which verb the form is from. Buy this book. It is worth it.
Rating: Summary: Great reference book Review: This is an excellent reference book I use all the time - doing my Latin homework, finding words to "enrich" English essays, or just reading for fun. Looking up verbs in this book is 100% better than doing so in a dictionary - you're lucky if you even find the principal parts in a dictionary. This is a great book to have for any Latin student.
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