Is Latin Hard to Learn?

Latin is not as DEAD as you’d think! Check this out to learn more. 👉🏼 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf5Wp_zuLGo

I studied it for 7 years and I don't think it's very hard to learn. The vocabulary is very easy to learn as the pronunciation and spelling us very straightforward, no silent letters or awkward syllables. There are a lot of grammatical endings, but they follow common patterns and have very few exceptions. As an English speaker, it was much easier to learn than German or French for sure.

I had 4 years of Latin in the early 1970s. Our teacher said an educated person does not have to know Latin but he should at least of forgotten it. Latin made passing the sats easy

I studied Latin in high school for 6 years. Understanding it becomes pretty easy after a while, but mastering is a bit harder indeed. We never had to be able to reproduce Latin actively, no speaking only translating. It's so much more than a dead language from the school banks, it a window into a fascinating culture, stories and history! It shaped my general interest in culture, history and language back then. It also helped me to learn other languages indirectly, like cognates of other modern Romance languages, grammatical structures, word classes etc. There's this popular Belgian (Flemish) song, 'Mia' by Gorki in Dutch. Some people have translated it into Latin, and I think it's a nice way to tie the ancient language to modern culture!

Latin is beautiful. I am learning Latin and Italian.

It can paradoxically be very difficult if you come from a Western Romance Language, because most often Words will be similar, but how they're strung together is totally different. It's being able to remove that pesky crust of bias you might have about the degree of relatedness which makes learning Latin very difficult to some people.

I learned Latin for 5 years in school. I loved its logical side. But I think it is so sad that you don't learn to speak it. So I almost forgot everything. But when I was teaching my young cousins it all came back.

I am an attorney of 40+ years' experience. I have taught Latin in college for over 10 years in retirement. I have always told colleagues and students that, for speakers of English, Latin is the easiest language to learn, followed by French. Once you get the "trick" of inflection, and are taught how to read in successive grammatical segments (as the Romans did), you will realize how enriching it is. And, all of your family and friends will think (erroneously, but, still) how smart you are! That has always been my experience, as I stand bemused.

As a Brazilian, it's very beautiful and warm to learn the Original Language to which Portuguese was born. One day I will be fluent. 😍😍

Gratias maximas quod hanc pelliculam divulgasti! Maxime delector.

A lot depends on the teachers, it seems. I've met so many people who said they hated it, but my teacher taught it conversationally and we all seemed to enjoy it. This was 30 years ago but I am learning it again now. It's definitely helpful when it comes to learning the grammar or languages like German, and vocabulary in any of the Romance languages as well as in English, and in science, medicine, and law. Some of it can seem more complicated than some other modern languages, but with effort, motivation, and the right materials, any language can be fun to learn!

I've been studying Latin on my own for 2+ years now and it has been pretty fun. I'm Finnish so I was very at home with the classical pronunciation of Latin and had a pretty easy time understanding the conjugation. Latin only has 6 cases while Finnish has double that. It does sometimes create problems because the ablative carries so many meanings, while in Finnish you have obvious endings for them. But it really depends on the sentence. Learning the basics of Latin and understanding the grammar isn't too hard. The hardest part (for me) is acquiring and retaining vocabulary. The word order can also get really wild if you're reading ancient texts, and poetry is still very hard for me to read. And the hardest part of them all: so many words have multiple meanings. They don't always mean the obvious and you just gotta learn them all. Just look at the most diverse verb, "agere". It can mean to do, to manage, to convey, to act, to work etc... But if you get a kick out of being able to understand Cicero in his native tongue Latin is really fun to learn!

Gratias maximas! Thank you very much for this fun and insightful video. I just shared it with my students and friends.

The grammar is very different from English and modern Romance languages, so there might be a bit of learning curve there, but it's not really difficult if you put the time in. Most importantly, and perhaps surprisingly, there are a LOT of resources for learning Latin. Not much opportunity to practice speaking it, for obvious reasons, but one can easily learn to read it. Reading ancient and medieval works in Latin, some of which aren't translated, is rewarding.

I've been studying it for five weeks. Initially i found it hard, but now, with dictionary and grammar book, i am composing in it.

Hi Olly! I think you forgot to mention that nowadays in Vatican latin is spoken by the Church so the people who wants to learn it can go there!

1:20 Several of your "Latin" words actually come from French (aplomb, chivalrous, condign, cull, naïve, parvenu, rapport, rapprochement, taunt), and one is from Spanish (incommunicado). Of course, most French words come from Latin, but the rest of the words on the list came into English directly from Latin.

Learning Latin change my life. I am learning on Duo. I will read those book as well.

Latin is one of the most brilliant languages. I am really glad that I had the opportunity to immerse into this language and Latin culture for a whole year during my secondary education. It was truly an amazing time. It really made easier for me the understanding of other languages. I still remember all those famous Latin quotes. My favourite to this day "Carpe diem". Thanks for the vid😍

I think you make some good points and try not make it sound too hard, however, there really isn't all that much utility in attaining an intermediate level in latin - which you can attain in the same span as say German. To enjoy Latin truly you will want to read all the great authors and enjoy the literature as well as maybe composing your own short stories and having fun using the language yourself which is going to take a much longer time than German in that case because for German there is far far more utility at having an intermediate level as opposed to latin. Not many institutes teach latin for the purpose of speaking and using it and all their pronunciation seems to be horrible even though latin isn't all that difficult to pronounce. They treat latin as a dead fossil to study it's grammar and to wonder at what you can translate and understand through that method which is a shame because it's a language like any other not some fossil to admire but not touch. I think to speak latin is much much harder than to speak German but only because of the lack of resources and practice partners in spoken latin as well as the teaching methods in schools and ofcourse available entertainment in the language.