Latin for Romance Speakers

ENGLISH (translated below in French, Italian, Spanish)
For those of you who have decided to learn Latin, do you find that the vocabulary, the gender of any given word or even specific grammatical distinctions (for example, the imperfect vs. the imperfect) are so instinctive for you that you have a clear advantage compared with the other students who do not have a romance language for a mother tongue?

FRENCH
Pour tous ceux qui ont décidé d’apprendre le latin, trouvez-vous que le vocabulaire, le genre d’un tel mot ou mêmes certaines distinctions grammaticales (par example, l’imparfait vs le parfait) vous sont autant instinctifs que vous avez un clair avantage par rapport aux autres étudiants qui n’ont pas pour langue maternelle une langue romane?

ITALIAN
Per Loro che hanno deciso di imparare il latino, trovano che il vocabolario, il genere di un certa parola o anche certe distinzione grammaticali (per esempio, l’imperfetto vs il passato prossimo) sono per Lei cosí instintivi che ha un vantaggio rispetto agli altri studenti che non hanno per madrelingua una lingua romanica?

SPANISH
Para Ustedes que decidieron de aprender el latino, encuentran que el vocabulario, el género de una tal palabra hasta algunas distinciones gramaticales (por ejemplo, el imperfecto vs el pretérito) son para Usted tan instintivo que tiene una ventaja en relación a los otros estudiantes que no tienen por lengua materna una lengua románica?

Para Ustedes que decidieron de aprender el latino, encuentran que el vocabulario, el género de una tal palabra hasta algunas distinciones gramaticales (por ejemplo, el imperfecto vs el pretérito) son para Usted tan instintivo que tiene una ventaja en relación a los otros estudiantes que no tienen por lengua materna una lengua románica?

Your Spanish is horrible.

Care to fix it?

<<Your Spanish is horrible. >>

It's a whole heck of a lot better than mine.

Can anyone comment on the quality of the Italian or French translations?

The English looks great.

Scusa, ma il tuo italiano risultava piuttosto zoppicante e sgrammaticato.

Coloro che hanno deciso d'imparare il latino, possono trovare che il lessico, il genere grammaticale di un certa parola o anche certe distinzioni grammaticali (per esempio, l’imperfetto nei confronti del passato remoto o del passato prossimo) sono per costoro abbastanza intuibili e possono avere un vantaggio rispetto agli altri studenti che non hanno come madrelingua una lingua romanza?

For those of you who have decided to learn Latin, do you find that the vocabulary, the gender of any given word or even specific grammatical distinctions (for example, the imperfect vs. the imperfect) are so instinctive for you that you have a clear advantage compared with the other students who do not have a romance language for a mother tongue

Is the English version correct? I don't think so....

<<Is the English version correct? I don't think so.... >>

What's wrong with the English vesion, other than some debatable punctuation and perhaps the "the imperfect vs. the imperfect" phrase? (I suppose the sentence is a bit long, too, but that's just a style issue)

Grazie per la tua traduzione, "translator". Does anyone feel like actually answering the question though? (By the way, I am anglophone of French Canadian descent. So it's an insult if you think my English was incorrect. )

"VS" is not used in any Romance language with the same sense given by English to this Latin preposition (versus). Versus and Romance derived words like Italian verso mean towards , not against.

" "VS" is not used in any Romance language with the same sense given by English to this Latin preposition (versus). Versus and Romance derived words like Italian verso mean towards , not against. "



Very true. these different meaning are often the origin of misundertandings. When one romance speaker say "English VS french"; or "romance vs germanic" he is just speaking about a comparision, to a fight. While many anglophones would understand this as a declaration of war.

Think it's obvious that Romance speakers students of Latin have a clear advantage compared with the other students who do not have a romance language for a mother tongue.

I spoke and speak French as mother tongue but went in school in Germany. Learning Latin was very difficult to me, my German schoolmates had much less problems. The problem was patially due to my thinking that knowing French would help me a lot. But Latin turned out to be much much more grammar than vocabulary. Furthermore, only a small portion of Latin vocabulary could be deduced from French. So French was of no use and even an obstacle....

<<Think it's obvious that Romance speakers students of Latin have a clear advantage compared with the other students who do not have a romance language for a mother tongue. >>

This is a misconception based on zero facts, but 100% supposition. Dangerous.

Contrarily to what many people believe, I would say that German speakers are better prepared for learning Latin than the Romance ones. Why? Romance languages have many Latin words, but German too. Of course it has to a lesser degree but still I doubt the German speakers don't find familiar a lot of Latin vocabulary. Appart from that, what is more important: German and Latin syntax are more similar to each other because both have noun declensions whereas in Romance tongues they dissapeared absolutely. Latin verbal conjugations are easy to grasp for German speakers because despite German has not many of these like the Romance languages, the concept is the same in both German and Latin. Also German has long and short vowels like Latin. This is important because two words in Latin may be different depending on a short or long vowel. Romance languages only have short vowels.

I spoke and speak French as mother tongue but went in school in Germany. Learning Latin was very difficult to me, my German schoolmates had much less problems

Have you ever thought that you are stupid?