Free course

Getting started on classical Latin

Free statement of participation on completion

This free course, Getting started on classical Latin, has been developed in response to requests from learners who had had no contact with Latin before and who felt they would like to spend a little time preparing for the kind of learning that studying a classical language involves. The course will give you a taster of what is involved in the very early stages of learning Latin and will offer you the opportunity to put in some early practice.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

understand some of the main links between English and Latin
pronounce Latin words confidently
have an understanding of basic English grammar in order to recognise and describe the way languages work
unravel basic Latin sentences.

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First Published: 03/12/2015

Updated: 24/05/2018

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Average rating 4.4 out of 5, based on 84 ratings.

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Course reviews

Clare Louise Head 19 August 2025 1:23PM

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I found this course enjoyable, basic (but this was welcome!) and an extremely useful introduction to Classical Latin and the study thereof. I have enrolled for A276 starting this autumn and I'm really looking forward to it.

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Finty Lovatt 25 July 2025 7:24AM

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Although I wouldn't say I am a complete beginner, this course still helped me immensely. it does focus a lot on basic principles of English grammar, but if I am honest I needed it, even as a native. I still learnt a lot about latin grammar through this course which I couldn't find in any Latin videos or books. I found it quite beneficial to my learning journey of Latin. I would say that it may not be for everyone or even very basic for some students but I enjoyed it and it was nice as a refresher.

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Getting started on classical Latin

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