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Learning Latin vocabulary with an app: principal parts up to the Latinum

Principal parts, range of meanings, Latinum with a dictionary: how to learn Latin with flashcards and checkst, from prima.nova to the supplementary exam.

Latin is not dead at German schools: in the 2024/25 school year, according to Destatis, 537,159 pupils learned Latin. And at university it catches up with many people again, at the latest when the examination regulations for teacher training or history require "proven Latin skills".

Latin is a special kind of vocabulary learning. You never speak the language, you translate it. And for that, knowing that "ferre = to carry" is not enough. You need to recognise tulī and lātum in the text as ferre. For the principle behind vocabulary cards in general, read Learning vocabulary with checkst. Here it is about what makes Latin special.

What the Latinum demands

In the NRW extension exam for the Latinum, you translate at least 180 Latin words in three hours; for the Small Latinum, at least 120 words in two hours. There is also an oral exam with about 50 words. A bilingual dictionary is allowed, but grammar of forms, syntax and vocabulary are assumed. The Bavarian information sheet explicitly excludes electronic dictionaries.

That means: the dictionary helps you with rare words. You don't have time to look up every et, cum and res.

The three Latin problems

The Berlin-Brandenburg framework curriculum describes quite precisely where it gets stuck:

  • Principal parts and conjugation. Person, number, tense, mood and voice must be recognised together. Without the principal parts you cannot find tulit in the dictionary.
  • Declension. Declension, gender and genitive belong to the word; otherwise you determine case and number in the sentence incorrectly.
  • Multiple meanings. You should know several meanings and choose the one that fits the context. One single German word per vocabulary item is not enough.

Which word list?

  • Your textbook: prima.nova has 45 lessons with a vocabulary booklet, Campus A follows the Bamberg vocabulary, adeo.NORM marks the 500 most frequent words.
  • Klett basic and advanced vocabulary: according to the publisher, 1,250 words of basic vocabulary and about 1,200 of advanced vocabulary. On AnkiWeb there is a community deck for it with 1,191 notes in the direction German to Latin. The creator flipped it automatically and warns about errors themselves.
  • Basic vocabulary Baden-Württemberg: 725 words, free to download.
  • Dickinson College Core Vocabulary: around 1,000 frequent lemmas which, according to the DCC, make up about 70 percent of the word forms of a typical Latin text. Meanings in English, freely licensed under CC BY-SA. We did not find an official Anki deck for it.

Your workflow with checkst

1. Photograph the lesson. Instead of typing out the vocabulary list, you photograph it. checkst extracts the text via text recognition, and you assign it to the fields. Or you import an Anki deck as .apkg.

2. One note, several cards. For a verb, it is worth making one note with infinitive, principal parts and meanings. From that you make one card "Meaning?" and one "Principal parts?". For the principal parts you type the answer, and checkst compares it with the solution. Typing forces you to really know lātum rather than merely recognise it.

3. Context instead of single-word translation. For words with several meanings, the construction goes on the card. Not "consulere = to advise", but both constructions with case.

4. FSRS instead of a lesson rhythm. checkst plans your repetitions with FSRS, by default with 90 percent target retention according to the Anki manual. This means the vocabulary from lesson 3 comes back even when you are already twenty lessons further. If you didn't know a word: "Again", not "Hard".

5. With the course. In the Latinum course at university, you share a deck in a checkst study group, invitation via QR code. One person types the first lessons, the next the following ones.

Example cards

Question

ferre: principal parts?

Answer

ferō, ferre, tulī, lātum

Question

consulere + accusative vs. consulere + dative?

Answer

Accusative: to ask someone for advice. Dative: to look after someone.

Question

Which mood follows cum causal ("because, since")?

Answer

Subjunctive.

Question

What is an ablative absolute?

Answer

A grammatically detached construction with its own subject in the ablative, serving as an adverbial modifier.

The consulere card is exactly the kind that saves the sentence in translation, and which is three lines further down in the dictionary when you are under time pressure.

What the research says

Karpicke and Roediger showed in 2008 with foreign-language vocabulary: repeated retrieval after the first correct recall clearly improved later recall, while additional rereading brought no corresponding benefit in this experiment. The meta-analysis by Kim and Webb found medium to large effects for distributed practice in a foreign language. Nobody has measured what this means for your Latinum grade.

Limitations

  • You only learn translating by translating. Cards give you vocabulary and forms. You practise sentence analysis on texts.
  • No publisher decks. There are no ready-made vocabulary sets in checkst for prima.nova, Cursus or Campus.
  • Check text recognition. You should check length marks such as in lātum after photographing.
  • Apple only. iPhone and iPad, no Android, no web app.

Frequently asked questions

May I use a dictionary in the Latinum?

Yes, a bilingual one. The Bavarian information sheet does exclude electronic dictionaries, though. And the NRW requirements still assume grammar of forms, syntax and vocabulary. Anyone who looks up every word won't finish.

Is there an Anki deck for my textbook?

For the Klett basic vocabulary there is a community deck on AnkiWeb, whose creator points out possible errors themselves. We did not find official publisher decks. For your textbook, it is best to type the lesson vocabulary yourself or photograph it.

Do I need the Latinum for my degree?

That depends on subject, degree and university. In Würzburg, for example, teaching qualifications for secondary schools in German and history require proven Latin skills. What counts is always the examination regulations of your degree programme.

Can I type principal parts instead of only flipping cards?

Yes. checkst displays Anki note types with an input field: you type the answer and see it next to the solution. The easiest way is to import a deck with such a note type or create one in Anki.

Sources

  1. Destatis GENESIS: table 21111-0006genesis.destatis.de
  2. Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf: requirements for Latinum, Small Latinum, Graecumbrd.nrw.de
  3. LMU: information sheet Latinum/Graecumklassphil.uni-muenchen.de
  4. University of Cologne: FAQ Latinumifa.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de
  5. University of Würzburg: Latinum, Graecum, Hebraicumuni-wuerzburg.de
  6. C.C.Buchner: adeo publisher informationccbuchner.de
  7. C.C.Buchner: prima.novaccbuchner.de
  8. C.C.Buchner: Campus Accbuchner.de
  9. Klett: basic and advanced Latin vocabularyklett.de
  10. Landesbildungsserver Baden-Württemberg: basic Latin vocabularyschule-bw.de
  11. AnkiWeb: Grundwortschatz Latein (Klett) (German→Latin)ankiweb.net
  12. Dickinson College Commentaries: Latin Core Vocabularydcc.dickinson.edu
  13. Framework curriculum Berlin-Brandenburg: Latin, competences and standardsbildungsserver.berlin-brandenburg.de
  14. Karpicke & Roediger (2008): The Critical Importance of Retrieval for Learningdoi.org
  15. Kim & Webb (2022): spacing meta-analysisdoi.org
  16. University of Erfurt: ferrewww2.uni-erfurt.de
  17. Navigium: consulerenavigium.de
  18. University of Mainz: small Latin compendiumklassphil.uni-mainz.de
  19. University of Mainz: grammar overview of cases, moods, subordinating conjunctionsklassphil.uni-mainz.de
  20. Anki manual: Deck Options / FSRSdocs.ankiweb.net