WORDS OFTEN CONFUSED

The purpose of this appendix is to help students distinguish between words which are often confused by beginners. Some teachers regard it as pedagogically unsound to draw their students’ attention to such similarities in this way, lest it cause the confusion it is intended to counter. They will therefore wish to ignore this section.

It is important to be able to distinguish between an altar and a pig-sty, and between a pronoun and a pig. Do not confuse āra, ārae fem. 1 altar (3) with (h)ara, (h)arae fem. 1 pig-sty, or suī, the gen. sing. of the reflexive personal pronoun suī and the gen. sing. and nom. pl. of the reflexive personal pronominal adjective suus, -a, -um (17), with the dat. sing. of sūs, suis masc./fem., a word for pig not used in Classical Latin.

ante prep. + acc. before, in front of (3) is often confused with the Greek preposition ἀντί (anti) against [contrast ‘antebellum’ with ‘anti-war’], levis, leve light (9) with lēvis, lēve smooth, pāreō, pārēre, pāruī 2 + dat. obey with parō 1 prepare and pariō, parere, peperī, partum 3 i-stem give birth, vincō, vincere, vīcī, victum 3 conquer (1) with vinciō, vincīre, vinxī, vinctum 4 bind.

For the most part, the following list juxtaposes only pairs of words if both used in Classical Latin. The number in parentheses denotes the chapter in which a word first appears.

adeō I go to (4)

adeō adv. so, to such an extent (23)

anima, animae fem. 1 soul (7)

animus, animī masc. 2 mind (7)

audeō, audēre, ausus sum 2 dare (15)

audiō, audīre, audīvī, audītum 4 hear (1)

cum prep. + abl. with (2)

cum conj. when, since, although (3)

It is worth mentioning cum ... tum ... not only ... but also (13), since that seemingly insignificant combination is often missed by beginners, who try to construe the two words separately in a more frequent and familiar sense.

eō I go (4)

eō adv. to there

fugiō, fugere, fūgī 3 i-stem flee (14)

fugō 1 put to flight (14)

hīc adv. here (12)

hīc nom. sing. masc. pron., pronom. adj. this (17)

iaceō, iacēre, iacuī 2 lie down (14)

iaciō, iacere, iēcī, iactum 3 i-stem throw (14)

lātus, -a, -um broad (6)

lātus, -a, -um perfect participle passive of fero (4)

liber, librī masc. 2 book (5)

līber, lībera, līberum free (6)

līberī, līberōrum masc. 2 children (10)

malō, dat./abl. masc./neut. sing. of malus, -a, -um bad (6)

mālō I prefer (10)

maneō, manēre, mansī 2 remain (7)

moneō, monēre, monuī, monitum 2 warn (1)

morior, morī, mortuus sum 3 i-stem die (15)

moror 1 delay (15)

nē adv., conj. (introduces various types of clause; see Chapters 22, 23, 24, 25)

-ne enclitic particle (introduces a question; see Chapter 4)

porta, portae fem. 1 gate (2)

portus, portūs masc. 4 port (11)

quīdam nom. sing./pl. indef. pron., pronom. adj. some(one) (18)

quidem (see ne ... quidem in Chapter 13; quidem has several further senses, such as indeed, on the one hand)

quō abl. sing. masc./neut. rel./interrog. pron., pronom. adj. who, what (18)

quō adv. to where (15)

quod nom./acc. neut. sing. rel. pron. which (18)

quod conj. because (3)

referō, referre, retulī, relātum irreg. bring back (7)

rēfert, rēferre, rētulit impers. it matters (28)

somnium, somniī neut. 2 dream (7)

somnus, somnī masc. 2 sleep (7)

tamen adv. but, however (7)

tandem adv. at last (3)

tantum adv. only (13)

tantus, -a, -um so much/great (13)

terreō, terrēre, terruī, territum 2 frighten (1)

timeō, timēre, timuī 2 fear (1)

vir, virī masc. 2 man (5)

vīrēs, vīrium fem. 3 power (10)