Wheelock's Latin

When I picked up my copy of Wheelock years later to refresh my knowledge of Latin, I discovered just how valuable the instructors' input had been been, as I kept coming across questions of grammar, tense, declension, etc. that were not fully explained, or clearly explained, in Wheelock. For a good eighty to ninety percent, the Wheelock explanations were sufficient, but for those who need a mastery of the language, eighty to ninety percent is not enough.

The sixth edition, which I bought to see what improvements had been made, is essentially the same text with additions. It is still divided into forty chapters, with each dedicated to one major grammar section; it has sentences (often from original sources) that need to be translated (without a key in the back), and other sentences (often constructed sentences) with a key in the back. The sixth edition has additional readings from primary sources in Latin above and beyond what were included in the third edition; also, the page layout and size of the book is different (and I must confess, I preferred the smaller format book to the workbook-size of the sixth edition).

If using Wheelock as a self-study, I particularly recommend Grote for assistance when Wheelock is talking about the various voices and verb conjugation issues, and the spelling/vowel changes that occur in conjugation or declension, Grote's notes are very valuable. Also, Grote seems to have more a sense for the modern student, adding little flourishes in the text, both in the description as well as the examples, to make things more fun and interesting. Sometimes I wondered in Wheelock if the only thing Latin was good for was writing funeral dirges or speeches about duty (I wonder how Gilbert & Sullivan would sound in Latin, since they are all about duty? But I digress...)

As Grote says in the introduction to his book, students are having increasing difficulties with mastering Latin grammar because they have less training (it seems) in English grammar. Studying Latin becomes a formal training not only in the foreign language, but also in general language structures. I must say I am envious of his students, having two semesters to get through the forty chapters of Wheelock; when I took the course, we did the whole thing in one semester, and it was an abbreviated summer term at that!

One very useful piece of Wheelock is that students learning Latin from it will simultaneously learn English grammar structure much more thoroughly. Wheelock is one of the better books available as a base text for the learning of Latin, in any edition.


Good for a consistent, organised student.   July 19, 2004
the great amphibian (Hampshire, UK)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Wheelock's Latin is impressive value for money, being a rewardingly huge square paperback and costing bout 10, and this is one of the first impressions. Having used the textbook for sometime however, I would point out some more details. The book is divided into forty chapters of study, and the recommended time span for each is estimated at one or two day for a college, (i.e university) semester course, or about a week per chapter for A-level. It is aimed at adults and is thus written in a non patronising way, and this is an excellent attribute. There are some things that aren't the best however, such as sentences picked from ancient authors never being given a suggested translation in the back of the book, (though other 'contrived' sentences are usually given which are translated so this isn't too much of a problem). A general problem with the text is the system that it follows. It is fine for the first chapters, perhaps even up to number ten, to memorize everything that you are told to memorize, (for each chapter this will mean a couple of paradigms and a vocabulary of about a one page list, and if a verbs then with four forms to learn by heart), but by the time demonstratives were reached, my brain just didn't want to rote-learn the sheer amount that was needed. I did manage it but I had to invent a mneumonics device, and it was at great pains, and to be honest, although the author, (and the revisor), have an intelligent and humourous approach to writing, it feels demoralizing to get to the end of a chapter having worked extrememly hard to memorize and to translate, only to have some non-anachronistic silly jokes or puns, as is at the end of most chapters. There are sections called Latina Est Gaudium Et Utilis which are amusing, but should be treated as ignorable, and indeed I have gone through with a fine comb and penciled out any paragraphs in all of the chapters that I have done so far that I think to be superfluous, and this includes the entirety of the 'Latina Est Gaudium' sections. It is true, as the previous reviewer said, that the tables are comprehensive, but considering this only takes up about twenty pages at the back, and the grammatical information is available from any other Latin course book or plenty of websites, it is hardly worth mentioning because the majority of the user's time with the book will be spent struggling through the chapters (struggling in a mneumonic sense) and trying to distinguish the superfluous information from the necessary. I have an ancient greek and a russian course book that are both less boastful in size than Wheelock and both make the student feel like they are making more rapid progress. I suppose that Wheelock is a kind of love-hate coursebook. Either you are a studious, consistent, neat worker and will love it, and make steady, uninterrupted progress, or you are a restless and ambitious learner for whom the standardised lessons might be too oppressive after so much time. Unfortunately the course book isn't tenable for me, but I have given it a good shot. I would highly recommend it to consistent workers who can do a set amount of work per day or per week for an entire year without fluctuations in their studying.


Top in Latin   October 22, 2003
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I've used a couple of different Latin Textbooks now and this is by far the best I've come across. It's easy to use, straight foreword, and concise. Whether you're working in a class or on your own this is a perfect tool and reference work. It’s especially good if you’re trying to teach yourself the language. There’s little in the way of confusion and everything you need is right there. If you’re learning in a class it’s still something to seriously look into having on hand for it’s clear tables of conjugations and declensions.