Why learn Latin?

In short

Hardly anyone speaks Latin any more, but it lives on in many languages and fields: in thousands of English words, in Italian, Spanish and French, in the language of medicine, law and science. Learning Latin also teaches you to take sentences apart precisely – and to read texts that shaped Europe.

Good reasons

Understanding English words: if you know video (I see), you understand video, vision and visa; portare (to carry) is in export, import and portable.
Romance languages: Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian descend from Latin. You recognise many words and forms.
Technical language: anatomy, biology, law and theology use Latin terms.
Understanding grammar: Latin shows cases, tenses and sentence structure very clearly. That often helps with English too.
Texts and history: Caesar, Cicero, Ovid – and stories like that of Paris and Helen, still told today.
Latinum: some degree programmes in Germany require it. Which subjects.

What Latin does not promise

Latin does not automatically make you cleverer, and whether it measurably makes learning other languages easier is disputed in research. What is certain: people who have learned Latin know many word roots and have learned to look closely. Whether it is worth it depends on your own goals.

How to start

With parts of speech and sentence elements, then the cases and the verb forms – and a few words of vocabulary a day from the start. Disce ludens I begins exactly like that, and the first three lessons are free. The app is in German: exercises, hints and meanings are German, as in the original. Getting started as a beginner.

Try it

A real exercise from Disce ludens:

Disce ludens II · Lesson 3 · Sequence of tenses, card 13

Discipulus magistrum interrogat, cur Paris Helenam ________.

Fill in rapere (rapio, rapui – to abduct) in the correct form: The pupil asks the teacher why Paris abducted Helen.

What Disce ludens does – and what it doesn’t

What Disce ludens does

Leads you step by step from the basics to Caesar.
Shows with every lesson how Latin is built.
Can be tried for free.

What it doesn’t do

Offers no pronunciation exercises.
Does not practise spoken conversation in Latin.
Does not promise better marks in other subjects.

Frequently asked questions

Is it worth learning Latin?

For many people, yes: because of the English vocabulary, the Romance languages, the technical terms and the Latinum required for some degree programmes. Whether it is worth it depends on your own goals.

Does Latin help with learning other languages?

Noticeably with the vocabulary of the Romance languages and with words of Latin origin. Whether it makes language learning easier in general is disputed in research.

Is Latin a dead language?

It is hardly spoken any more, but it is read, studied and used in technical language. Its vocabulary lives on in many European languages.