Wheelock's Latin
by Frederic M. Wheelock, Richard A. LaFleur · first published 1995
10mentions
6recommended by
10HN commenters
2016–2025first – last mentioned
60% recommend40% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Structured grammar course for learning Latin from the basics, often paired with Lingua Latina; praised as one of the best language-learning books, suited to self-learners and students picking Latin up.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The classic beginning Latin texbook offers forty chapters with grammatical explanations and readings based on ancient Roman authors, along with self-tutorial exercises and an answer key for independent study.
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K&R gets so much hell, but it's a good, raw back to basics text. It deserves a place on the shelf beside the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual, or Wheelock's Latin, or Lyman's Guide to Reloading, or The Joy of Cooking, or the Elements of Style. It's the programming book for Boy Scouts, a crude, but essential Swiss Army Knife --the great programming book for the…
on “Learn C Programming with Open-Source Books” ↗Sisper's Introduction to the Theory of Computation. Bible. Wheelock's Latin. Why don't we teach the bible and latin from kindegarten through college to our kids? I'm an atheist but I would have benefited from reading the bible and learning latin in elementary/high school. And…
That and Wheelock's Latin are the main book recommendations. Other than that, there are a bunch of subreddits and a large discord which might be nice if you want to get some daily active practice in (including voice chat). Or…
on “Speaking Latin” ↗I would recommend some combination of Lingua Latina and Wheelock's Latin. That's what my Latin tutor used and they complement each other very well.
on “Speaking Latin” ↗…though if different phrases/clauses are shown, as being able to divide long Latin sentences into their principal phrases really helps with learning. Recommendations for good resources along with this: - Wheelock's Latin: A grammar book. It's impossible to fully understand Latin without knowing the grammar, and this book is the best at doing that. - Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata: A great book for learning how to read…
on “Show HN: Learn Latin through interactively reading the Classics” ↗This is really nice, and I hope you continue with additional texts, as I have been trying once again to pick up Latin basics, using YouTube videos and Wheelock's Latin (which is one of the best foreign language books I've ever seen). It would be nice to be able to add the macrons or even acute accent characters to show emphasis syllables as another toggle-able option…
on “A web app to read Latin texts with inline translations” ↗…people interested in Latin aren't really interested in that but really just want to read Latin. And you certainly can do that on your own. There are lots of textbooks, but probably the most popular is Wheelock's Latin which has the advantage that if you don't understand a particular exercise, you'll have no problem finding someone to explain it to you on the Net.
on “The Vatican’s Latinist” ↗> Foreign languages This reminds me of how Wheelock's Latin is the introductory Latin textbook. It's 65 years old and still in use.
on “In Praise of Open Source Textbooks” ↗I think there's a lot to this analysis, but it's common to try to interest people in an activity by pointing out that it's fun, or that it can be fun. I was just reading Wheelock's Latin this morning and he has a recurring section in each chapter "Latina est gaudium - et utilis" ('Latin is fun - and useful'). We do need more discussion about this. I met a professor who studies formal…
on “Coding is not ‘fun’, it’s technically and ethically complex” ↗It's still standard for dead languages (cf. Wheelock's Latin, any Biblical Hebrew text, Koine Greek, Classical Greek, Aramaic, etc.). Modern languages have tended to shift into a focus on conversational use rather than scholarly reading. There're fairly obvious…
on “The New Old Way of Learning Languages (2008)” ↗