Henle Latin First Year

As a Latin teacher, I have used a number of texts (Orberg, Jenney, Wheelock, Latin for Americans), but I have to say that Henle's Latin series is my favorite. Old school it is, but Henle's method is extremely effective. Students who work through the first volume will have a very solid grasp of the most important features of Latin grammar, a comfortable vocabulary designed to help them into Caesar's Gallic Wars (the primary content of Volume 2), and the ability to read and comprehend Latin. The text has a huge amount of exercises, primarily, but by no means only, translation from Latin to English and English to Latin, this second type being the true test of a student's ability to manipulate the language and test his mastery of the grammar and syntax. The entire 4-volume Henle series is designed for the traditional Latin Classical curriculum: grammar mastery, Caesar, Cicero, and finally Vergil, with a significant number of Christian readings as well (many taken from the Latin Vulgate Bible and liturgical hymns). I have found that students gain a great deal of confidence in their mastery of Latin from this book. Frequent repetition, constant review and re-entry of previously learned material guarantees solid learning. This book was written---as has been noted in another review---at a time when true mastery of the language was demanded and expected. Henle approaches his material methodically and clearly (the accompanying "Grammar" is essential as a supplement for all four volumes), but keeps a challenging pace and avoids boredom. It is true that in Volume 1, the vocabulary is kept somewhat lower (around 500 words) in the interests of mastering the grammar, but these are high-frequency words in Caesar and so are practical at the same time. The First Year text (Volume 1) moves through the five noun declensions, adjective agreement (both 1/2 declension as well as 3rd declension adjectives), and the entire present and perfect systems indicative (-io verbs, oddly, are not taught until much later in the book) plus other grammar topics in the first five Units (Book 1 has 14 Units in all), an ambitious but very doable goal due to the abundance of exercises. This allows students to read a wide variety of grammatical content at a comparatively early stage. Units 6 & 7 cover, among other things, the four tenses of the (active) subjunctive in indirect questions and purpose clauses. (Compare this to many texts which put off the subjunctive until 2nd year.) This means that by halfway through the text, the students have mastered much of Latin grammar and guaranteeing an eventual smooth transition into reading real Latin written by real ancient authors (Caesar, for a start). The only caveat is that those students who will ultimately be taking AP Latin (Caesar and Vergil according to the 2013 syllabus) will not be able to rely on the Henle texts alone. The Henle texts were written long before the AP program came into existence, and his excerpts from Caesar's "Commentarii de Bello Gallico" and (in Volume 4) Vergil's "Aeneid" do not completely correspond to the required readings of the AP syllabus. It is my personal belief that, particularly with Vergil, Henle offers a wider, more interesting sample of the text, but to take (and pass) the AP Exam, students will need to cover other passages from Caesar and Vergil (I recommend Mueller's text for "Caesar" and Boyd's text for the "Aeneid"). However, if you are homeschooling or otherwise not interested in the AP Latin program, stay with Henle through all four volumes. In short, a masterful text, the quintessential expression of the grammar-translation method at its best.

Loving this text book! It’s been easy to follow and teach with no prior Latin experience. Have it spiral bound for a lay flat experience.

This is a very old-school Catholic textbook from the days when you could expect promotion of the Catholic Church and its doctrine in every textbook, be it social studies or chemistry. But if you can deal with that, Henle's Latin is a gem of pedogogical sophistication--it's the kind of text that earned the Jesuits their reputation as great teachers. Basically the text relies on marvelously integrated reading passages, short clear grammatical descriptions (this is how you say it in English, and this is how Latin does it similarly/differently) and short translation and fill-in exercises and drills. There is no answer guide, but if you need one I believe somebody's written one. All the paradigms have been shifted to a separate text, Henle's Latin Grammar. The vocabulary has been kept to about 500 words, which means you'll get very comfortable using all of them. This first text is intended to get the student ready to read Caesar, but I must say it is refreshing to read commentary that doesn't fawn all over him, or over the Romans either. I've read so many texts from the 20s and 30s that read like pro-fascism. Henle wrote this text in 1945, and it shows in the jaundiced attitude towards "strong men" and expanding empires I used Wheelock's Latin in college and I loved it, but at this remove (40 years), I can see its deficiencies. If you want to read Latin you have to READ LATIN--the grammar, while essential, is of secondary importance. Jones & Sidwell is not unlike Henle, but more difficult to use. Also I really don't like the typography in Jones & Sidwell, or the small print either. I have similar problems with Oerberg's Lingua Latina (typography), and also it bores me--but its method (learning by reading) is very similar to Henle.

This has been used in colleges, but can be used easily for self-study. I've had a lot of Latin textbooks. But this is my favorite! It's not too technical or complex for home study. Easy to follow if you do the memorization. It's the easiest I've found for serious studies of the language,; also very interesting. It's been a standard text for quite a long time.

I’m not a beginner in Latin (two years at school, two semesters of Ecclesiastical Latin as a post-graduate), but I never liked Latin and it was always the weakest of the five foreign languages at I read. I’ve used various materials over the years to remedy my grasp, some of them good. Nothing, however, has done me as much good as Henle. To begin the list of advantages: there is a key for each of the four volumes in the series, essential if you don’t have a teacher. Second, although this series was written in the early 1950s, it has one huge advantage over more recent courses, a feature supported by the extensive research into language acquisition since Henle’s time: it gives the learner masses and masses of practice. A lot of the other texts give the learner lots of grammatical explanation, a list of vocabulary and then a handful of sentences to read before expecting the learner to translate out of and into the Target language. Language learning doesn’t work that way. There’s nothing wrong with grammatical explanations or memorising, but to learn a language, you have to have substantial exposure to it. Henle gives you this in spades. Yes, in the early volumes a lot of this is ‘made up’ Latin. I fail to see the problem with this: we all learnt to read English with ‘made up’ English, that is, texts specifically designed for a child. Texts that use only what they call ‘real’ Latin simply cannot provide enough text for a beginner, or even intermediate level, learner to practise on. Henle has exercises, reading passages and ‘boxes’ (short, pithy sayings from ‘real Latin’ texts), all of them carefully pitched so as to be manageable for the learner so you get lots and lots of practice. Yes, there are a couple of features some people won’t like. The illustrations haven’t been updated at all and are just awful—but if you want colour pictures of The Colosseum, you can rummage on the Internet. Yes, Henle OVERUSES all caps—but you get used to it and cease to notice. Yes, there is a lot of Catholic content: the title page indicates Henle was a Jesuit, the publisher is the press of a Jesuit university and Henle was writing for American Catholic high school students of 70 years ago—but his books wouldn’t still be in print if there weren't plenty of other people buying them. I get more annoyed by the rah-rah American bias, but I accept that I wasn’t his target audience and he was writing shortly after a major world war. The drawbacks of Henle are very minor in comparison to the huge advantages of his course. I’m halfway through book two and have already bought book three. I hope to go to the end and read Virgil. No other text has given me the desire, let alone the confidence, to do this.

O método é bom. É do tipo gramatical, em contraposição ao método natural de William Most ou Hans Ørberg (que eu particularmente, prefiro). Não é possível estudá-lo sem a gramática do mesmo autor (Henle Latin Grammar), que é um material complementar a que o Latin First Year faz referência e remete a consulta o tempo todo.

This is a great book. If I had had this book when I first took Latin in the 80's I would have a much better grasp of Latin than I do now (sorry, Wheelock). My only complaint is that the binding or glue is pretty weak -- 3 lessons into the 42 lesson book and pages are already starting to fall out. And I didn't even crack the spine.

Written by catholic priest for Catholics. I am not religious, but I love this book. It is clearly set out and contains tips on Latin learning that I have not come across before in any other course.

Perhaps I am just a dim-wit but I sure couldn't learn anything from this book.