Derivations and the Short Final Section
Two Extra Skills on the Language Paper
The language paper does not stop at the three-part narrative. It also checks whether you can spot how Latin words survive inside English, and it ends with a short final section that offers a choice between two quite different tasks. Both pieces are smaller than the narrative, but neither can be ignored — they still need deliberate, focused practice.
Alongside the three-part narrative, the language paper checks knowledge of derivation links between Latin and English throughout its questions. It then ends with a short final section, worth a small share of the marks for this component, that offers a choice between two different tasks.
Spotting English Derivations
A derivation question asks you to find an English word that has grown out of a Latin word, and to explain how the Latin meaning helps explain the English meaning. The link is strongest when you know the Latin word’s exact core sense — a vague guess at the Latin meaning makes it much harder to justify the English word convincingly.
Several Latin nouns from the vocabulary list show the pattern clearly:
- pater — father; the derived English word is paternal (relating to a father).
- aqua — water; the derived English word is aquarium (a tank for keeping water and fish).
- corpus — body; the derived English word is corporal (relating to the body).
- urbs — city; the derived English word is urban (relating to a city).
- manus — hand; the derived English word is manual (done by hand).
Compound verbs built from a prefix keep exactly the same pattern:
- advenio (ad + venio, ‘come to’) — the derived English word is advent (a coming or arrival).
- exspecto (ex + specto, ‘look out for’) — the derived English word is expect.
Derivation answers need the Latin word’s exact core meaning, not an approximate guess. Writing that venio means ‘go’ instead of ‘come’ makes it far harder to justify why it produces English words like ‘advent’ or ‘convention’.
The Short Final Section
After the three-part narrative, the language paper offers a choice between two tasks for its short final section. One option asks you to translate simple English sentences into Latin; the other asks you to recognise, analyse and explain grammar within a short Latin passage. Only one of these is prepared and answered, not both.
This option asks you to translate a small number of simple, single-clause English sentences into Latin. The verbs use only the first conjugation, in the third person singular or plural, in the present, imperfect or perfect indicative active. Nouns come only from the first and second declension, in the nominative or accusative, singular or plural. Adjectives are also first or second declension, without comparative or superlative forms, and every word needed comes from a dedicated English-to-Latin vocabulary list, which you are expected to learn.
Take the sentence ‘The girl loves the master.’ puella (girl) is the subject, so it stays nominative; dominus (master) is the object, so it becomes accusative dominum; the verb is third person singular present active, amat. The full sentence is puella dominum amat.
Change both nouns to the plural and the sentence becomes puellae dominos amant — ‘the girls love the masters’ — with the nominative plural subject, the accusative plural object, and the verb switched to the third person plural.
This option gives you a short passage and asks you to recognise, analyse and explain particular forms within it. Verbs are limited to the present, imperfect and perfect indicative active, third person singular or plural, plus the present active infinitive. Nouns and adjectives can come from the first three declensions; the specification does not restrict which degrees of adjective may appear, so revise positive, comparative and superlative forms. Any case may appear in the passage, and you may be asked to recognise and explain forms in any of them, so revise the full range of case endings. Demonstratives such as hic and ille, and clauses introduced by quod (‘because’) or ubi (‘when’), may appear in the passage, so be ready to recognise and explain them.
In the sentence dominus servum laudat — ‘the master praises the slave’ — you might be asked to identify the case and function of servum. The answer is that it is accusative singular, because it is the direct object of laudat, and the ending -um marks second-declension accusative singular.
The short final section carries only a small share of the marks for the language paper, so most preparation time should stay on the three-part narrative. Even so, one of the two options must be chosen and practised consistently, since translating into Latin and analysing Latin grammar are quite different skills.