Russ’ Quick Latin Grammar Reference

Welcome to Russ’ quick little Latin grammar reference pages. After so many years out of school, it’s time to make a quick reference I can use even when far away from my den.

I began studying Latin and Greek first at the Université de Paris X in Nanterre, France not far from my home then in the northwest suburbs of Paris back in the 70s, then I continued at Brigham Young University in the 80s where I graduated with a BA in French, Latin, Greek and Computer Science.

Thanks for stopping in!

Simple instructions

Click on a top-level menu to expand to show that section. Click on it again to drop down its subordinate menu items or to collapse it (decreasing window clutter).

Use the scroll bar on the right side of the window if need be to peruse relevant content.

If you have suggestions or comments to make, click here to e-mail me. This includes prioritizing those parts of this site that are under construction or coming soon.

Order of cases in declensions (modern vs. legacy)

I know my default (modern) case order annoys American students so I have provided a way around it.

Near the bottom of the navigational menu, click on modern case order to toggle order of declensions. This changes it to legacy case order.

Click again to change back.

Legacy case order is nominative/vocative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative. This is how it's still taught in Britain, the United States and Germany.

Modern case order (my default) is nominative/vocative, accusative, genitive, dative ablative. This is how it began to be taught in France in the 1970s when I studied at l'université de Paris X; it's a more mneumonic paradigm, more logical order, easier to memorize, with the cases "falling" more obliquely away from the nominative (0 or vertical case).

Citing a substantive in Latin is still performed as nominative/genitive no matter what order is supported by the full paradigm.