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Latin (Teach Yourself)
 
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Latin (Teach Yourself) (Paperback)

by Gavin Betts (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 404 pages
  • Publisher: Teach Yourself Books; 2nd Revised edition edition (23 Jun 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0340772808
  • ISBN-13: 978-0340772805
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 721,868 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Product Description

This guide to learning Latin includes a website address which features extra information and revision exercises.


About the Author

Gavin Betts was formerly Professor of Latin at Monash University, Victoria, Australia. He is now retired and devotes his time to writing. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book but..., 12 Mar 2001
By A Customer
This is an excellent book, which I enjoyed working through. Unfortunately there are no english to latin exercises (except on the web site). However, I have a BIG complaint: the binding on the book is poor quality; after a while my book fell apart into half a dozen pieces, making it useless!
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Not really a beginner's book, 17 Nov 2006
For an author to to shoehorn a comprehensive Latin course for the independent learner into 400 pages is a challenge, as there is insufficient space to include enough practice material. The choice is therefore between writing a book for the complete beginner that proceeds at a fairly leisurely pace but omits detail or a more condensed but comprehensive book. Betts has chosen the latter option, so the book is fairly dense and a lot of new information is presented in each chapter. After the first few chapters, all the exercises are original Latin and are quite difficult. Exposing the student to original Latin as early as possible may be appropriate in a classroom situation where the teacher is present to encourage and explain, but the difficulty of the exercises means that the independent learner starting from scratch is likely to give up after a few chapters. The total beginner would be advised to look elsewhere. For a shorter introduction Sharpley's Teach Yourself Beginner's Latin is recommended, or for a more comprehensive introduction Wheelock's Latin with its accompanying Workbook (together with the answer keys for both, available from the publisher) and Grote's Comprehensive Guide to Wheelock, occupying a total of around 1500 pages and therefore providing sufficient practice material.

On the other hand, for someone who has already learned the basics of Latin, Bett's book provides a good revision course. As well as all the basic material, Betts explains some grammatical concepts in a slightly different way, introduces a few grammatical concepts not covered by Wheelock, and brings together some material that is rather dispersed in Wheelock.

Answers to all the exercises are given in the back of the book, but even for someone who has already worked their way through Wheelock, they are not easy.

The book is densely written, but the explanations and examples are clear. This book is therefore recommended for the more advanced independent learner who is determined to master Latin. Complete beginners are advised to look elsewhere.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, comprehensive introduction to Latin., 31 May 2005
By Thomas P. Meaney - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I found this book very useful. Betts covers his subject in a logical, comprehensive manner, and his explanations have a lucid economy of style that reflects his thorough grounding in the classics. There is no repetition, and I suspect that the absolute beginner will need to revise thoroughly after every ten units or so. The reading exercises are varied and challenging, and are well chosen to illustrate the points covered in the relevant unit. Much of the material is original Latin, sometimes modified for clarity in the earlier units. The vocabulary at the end of the book contains several thousand words and covers all of the reading exercises and example sentences. About midway through the book the author introduces longer reading exercises. Excerpts from Vergil's Georgics, from Caesar and Lucretius (inter alia) are included, with notes to help in parsing difficult passages. Many units include an 'excursus' to illustrate points of Roman history and daily life. For the well-motivated reader prepared to approach the learning of Latin in a methodical, disciplined manner, and at a realistic pace, this is a superb learning resource. The book has one fault: in common with many other titles in the Teach Yourself series it is very poorly bound. My copy has disintegrated into a loose-leafed collection of tattered pages. What a pity it is not available in a well-bound hardback edition.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Treats you like an adult but slightly overwhelming
I like language books to progress rapidly but this is quite difficult to keep up with for a curious bginner like myself. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mrs. A. C. Eggeling

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for revision but hard going for beginners
This book presents the principles of Latin grammar in a logical manner, building up vocabulary at the same time, and is therefore ideal for revision purposes by those who have... Read more
Published on 23 Nov 2004

3.0 out of 5 stars Overall Very Good
Gavin Betts makes a fairly good job of explaining a complex language here. There are a few weaknesses, firstly the purpose for many of learning latin will be involvement in church... Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2004 by Mr. O. Keenan

5.0 out of 5 stars A well structured and effective text for learning Latin
This text is well structured and presented for anyone wishing to learn Latin. Though it is heavy on grammatical terms, the grammar glossary and frequent reading/translating... Read more
Published on 30 Jun 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating.
This book has helped me learn the very basics of Latin and much more. It is marvelous because it teaches all the important stuff of this extinct language. Read more
Published on 31 Dec 1998

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