• NomenCumLitteris@lemmy.ml
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    12 hours ago

    Latin: I’m reading at a level of a second year student. Noun and adjective declensions are solid, but I am trying to hone in on different tenses of complicated verb forms, such as imperfect passive conjunctive. I can only speak Latin with small phrases derived from vocabulary and familiar texts I’ve read. My speech is quite limited since there is no one around me that has an interest in Latin, so I have to piece together and memorize what I want to say before saying it.

    Ancient Greek: I know only the alphabet.

    Both: I am a self learner in my adult years and did not take either language via schooling.

  • dragnucs@lemmy.ml
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    13 hours ago

    I know like less than 10 phrases:

    Etcetera Ad hoc Vice verca Veni vidi vici Carpe diem Spiritus Santus

    And some other I forgot how to write them and correect pronunciation because I never use them. Generally I only know words or phrases, not even a full sentence.

  • ctkatz@lemmy.ml
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    18 hours ago

    latin, a little bit. it was a required 7th grade class. it’s been 25(!!!) years and I’m neither a lawyer or a catholic clergy so my retention of it is almost non existent. the things I do still hang on to are from my exposure to spanish and french at work where I can remember a few base words.

  • Binette@lemmy.ml
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    23 hours ago

    A bunch of abreviations, like etc., eg., and some others like quid pro quo

  • Skunk@jlai.lu
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    2 days ago

    Cum gallo et gladio.

    That’s the only thing I know in Latin cause I want it to be my family coat of arms.

    It means “with a rooster and a sword”, but you need to understand French to discover the power of that sentence: “Avec un coq et une épée”, or as famously said in slang, “Avec ma bite et mon couteau suisse” (with my dick and Swiss Army knife).

    It a saying we use to say that we don’t need preparation or equipment to do something.

  • FindME@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org
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    24 hours ago

    I know too much. Somehow the ancient greek teacher talked me into taking it. I wonder if there is any ethics violation in an advisor advising his advisees to take his own class… It’s a great way to convince the bosses that there is a lot of interest in your subject and thus you should continue to be employed, I suppose.

    After all this time, I wouldn’t be able to walk up to the ancient athenian murder speeches and understand them, but give me a dictionary and two days and I probably would be able to pick it all up again.

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 days ago

    I learned Latin in school for several years; I only learned to understand and translate it, not actively speak or write it, and have by now forgotten some of it.

    I do not know any Ancient Greek at all, I might recognize some words from other languages.

  • frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    Latin: I can still bang out the five declensions and the four conjugations in my sleep. Trying to read a text, the sentence structure always finds ways to trip me up.

    Greek: very patchy, I know a lot of words but my grammar is shite

  • Metostopholes@midwest.social
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    1 day ago

    Older millennial here. I know a few random words and phrases in Latin. A couple examples:

    “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”
    “Who will watch the watchmen?”
    Thanks to the comic Watchmen. Meaning it is difficult to regulate the actions of people in power.

    “Alea iacta est.”
    “The die is cast.”
    Attributed to Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon river, guaranteeing there would be a civil war. Meaning the outcome is uncertain, but you’ve passed the point of no return (“crossing the Rubicon” is also used to mean that).

    I don’t know any ancient Greek though.