One of the single most important tasks students of Latin can do is memorize the vocabulary. As parents/teachers, this is such an easy way to help them out even if we don't know anything about Latin. While I still believe it's important for students to make their own vocabulary cards, sometimes their handwriting leaves much to be desired, and it can be exhausting trying to get everything spelled precisely with all of the correct information attached.
So I finally made my own set of printable vocabulary cards that go through the entire book of Henle's First Year Latin. It amounts to just under 500 vocabulary cards! That means if you took the time to master ten vocabulary words a week, you could have all of the vocabulary memorized in a year. That's crazy.
I'm hoping these printable flashcards will empower moms to help their students study the vocabulary, because it is one of the best ways to make your Latin exercises go faster. If you're not having to look up every word in the sentence, you'll definitely have an advantage!
Buy the PDF printable Henle Latin Keyring Flashcards for $15 below, or join the Latin with Andy membership site and all get this great resource and many more included in your membership!
Here are some ways to strengthen your vocab card game:
Flashcards for Latin Nouns
When you're memorizing any Latin vocabulary, it's easy to just focus on the simple meaning. This can be going from Latin to English or English to Latin. However, there are so many other things you could quiz about nouns to really help ingrain the language.
- Identify the declension - Mix up the noun cards, and go through a round of just identifying which declension the noun belongs to. This is so vital when translating from English to Latin because if you don't know which rules the noun follows, you'll just be increasing the opportunities for errors!
- Identify the gender - While this might be simple, mastering the gender rules for each declension is so important. The good news for mom is that every flash card has the gender of the noun listed on the back. This means you can confidently help them even if you don't know why that is the case!
- Decline the noun - Okay, so all of this information is not on the card, but you can open your grammar book and follow along while your student declines orally. This is such a great way to practice hearing all of the forms a noun can take.
Flashcards for Latin Adjectives & Adverbs
Adjectives decline like nouns, but they don't have their own gender. They take the same gender as the noun that they modify. Working on memorizing the adjectives is all about recognizing which declensions each of them follow. They're pretty basic.
Adverbs are the best words in Latin because THEY. NEVER. CHANGE. Isn't that awesome! No declension. They just stay the same. Once you have these mastered, you're good to go!
Flashcards for Latin Conjunctions & Prepositions
Conjunctions are like adverbs. They are straight forward and simple! I love them.
The important thing to memorize with your prepositions is which case they govern. That is a crucial piece of information when translating!
Flashcards for Latin Verbs
Verbs are the most challenging. In the first two units of Henle Latin, you're given specific forms of verbs to memorize their specific meanings. Once you hit lesson 9, you're given the four principal parts of the verb, and you really need to start memorizing all four parts. They're all given on the front of the flashcard.
Again, life starts easily with the 1st conjugation and regular principal parts (meaning they all change in the same way). Once you hit the 2nd and 3rd conjugation, there are all kinds of variations. You just have to memorize them all.
The first time we made it to lesson 15 in the Henle book, which introduces the perfect system for verbs, we all fell apart because we didn't have that 3rd principal part memorized, and that's what you use to build the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect tenses in the active voice. It all snowballed after that and we had to go back and fortify the grammar before we could tackle any of the exercises.
Also, make sure to review identify which conjugation a verb belongs to. Hint: in the flashcards, this information is bolded in the second principal part.
Setting Up Your Cards
I've separated the file for the flash cards into six sections:
- Unit 1 - (Lessons 1-6)
- Unit 2 - (Lessons 7-8)
- Unit 3 - (Lessons 9-15)
- Units 4-6 - (Lessons 16-24)
- Units 7-9 - (Lessons 25-34)
- Units 10-14 - (Lessons 35-42)
I'm printing each section on a different color of card stock just so I can quickly sort them back out when I need to.
Important printing note: When you set your printer to print double sided, make sure to select "Flip on short edge" so that the front and back line up!
I went ahead and laminated the printed page. I didn't want to laminate 500 individual rectangles, so I know I'm taking a risk here, but it is worth my time! Ha! That's how I'm living on the edge these days!!
I printed light guide lines to help you cut them out. Depending on how your printer fits the page, they may not all be precisely the same size, but I'm okay with that.
I punched my holes on one side, so I could put them on my key ring and not lose any of them!
Working Towards Mastery
With all things, our goal is to master this vocabulary. My kids will start with 20-30 minutes a day studying their flash cards. I might not work that long with them, but I will do a final proof, and at that point, I can set aside words that they've mastered to just review once a week. I want the bulk of their time spent working on the words they're unsure of.
You could totally use the Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System with any memory work you're trying to tackle. Systems like this really help make the time you spend memorizing information efficient and effective.
For Auditory and Visual Learners
It's no secret that my son loves Latin. He's creating short videos covering 10 vocabulary words at a time to help auditory and visual learners master their vocabulary. Check out the first video here:
Get Your Henle Latin Keyring Flashcard PDF
There are two ways you can get the PDF to print flashcards for your homeschool:
1. Click the "buy now" button to purchase the PDF download for $15 and start making cards today!
2. Join the Latin with Andy community and download the files in the printable resource section.