Three Books

[Lex]

If you had to choose between learning Latin from Wheelock's Latin, Moreland and Fleischer's Latin: An Intensive Course, or Keller and Russell's Learn to Read Latin, which would you pick, and why?

[adrianus]

Salve Lex

For me, if I had to choose, I couldn't. I have just Wheelock and rarely consult it,—not because it's not good, but because I use further ones again. Opinions differ a lot and accordingly so do grammars and textbooks! Sorry I can't help. I wonder who knows all three well.

Pro meâ parte, si ad unam grammaticam seu commentationem e tribus diligendam cogar, sic facere non possim. Illam solam de Wheelock habeo, quam rarò consulo, non quod mala est, sed quod adhibeo plus ultrá. Quot homines, tot sententiae atque grammaticae! Quòd ego te adjuvare nequeo me paenitet. Quis has tres in consuetudine habeat demiror.

[Essorant]

I picked Wheelock about a decade ago, but never read those other two. Why? Its reputation convinced me that it would be a good grammar to try.

The only other Latin grammar I have is Latin Via Ovid. It seems much better than Wheelock's Latin, but perhaps the reason I think so is because after reading Wheelock's Latin, when I read Latin Via Ovid later, everything chimed into place a bit better from reptition and more experience. If I had read Latin Via Ovid and then Wheelock, perhaps I would feel the other way about them.

[spiphany]

Moreland and Fleischer is good as a refresher course (this is how I used it), or for someone who already knows a bit of basic Latin.

Because it is an intensive course, it moves very quickly, and a complete newcomer to Latin might find it difficult to keep pace. If used as a primary textbook, I think most students would want to supplement it with something else in order to get more practice with basic constructions.

[Lex]

Spiphany,

So if I had Wheelock as my main tutorial, and "Floyd & Rita" for reviewing bits that I've forgotten, I would be well covered?

[spiphany]

Wheelock alone would be sufficient, I suspect. I haven't used the text, but I gather he's pretty thorough. If you feel the need to use a second book, you might want to consider looking for a beginning reader or a reading-based text, just to get another perspective, sometimes it helps to work with something that uses a very different approach than a grammar-based course.

But everyone's learning style is different. There's no "one size fits all" textbook which is perfect for all students. All you can do is consider your goals and interests and look for a course that is aimed at a similar audience.

[Lex]

Wheelock alone would be sufficient, I suspect. I haven't used the text, but I gather he's pretty thorough. If you feel the need to use a second book, you might want to consider looking for a beginning reader or a reading-based text...

OK. I have a nice set of the Wheelock books that I found used, including the Reader. And unlike with Homeric or classical Greek, I have a 501 Latin Verbs book, to help me wrap my head around verb conjugations. So I guess that will do for now. Thanks, spiphany and everyone else.

[alismith]

Fleischer's Latin: An Intensive Course is what we used in my Intro to Latin course from my online degree program and I thought it was alright. I certainly wouldn't fully recommend it but I don't think it would be a bad choice.