Millenials and Gen Z of Lemmy: how much Latin and Ancient Greek do you know?

Null

Cum gallo et gladio.

That’s the only thing I know in Latin cause I want it to be my family coat of arms.

It means "with a rooster and a sword", but you need to understand French to discover the power of that sentence: "Avec un coq et une épée", or as famously said in slang, "Avec ma bite et mon couteau suisse" (with my dick and Swiss Army knife).

It a saying we use to say that we don’t need preparation or equipment to do something.

Latin: I can still bang out the five declensions and the four conjugations in my sleep. Trying to read a text, the sentence structure always finds ways to trip me up.

Greek: very patchy, I know a lot of words but my grammar is shite

I learned Latin in school for several years; I only learned to understand and translate it, not actively speak or write it, and have by now forgotten some of it.

I do not know any Ancient Greek at all, I might recognize some words from other languages.

The only Latin I know is from the thaumcraft mod

Surprisingly it gives you a lot of the roots you need to figure out words in other languages

I know some dinosaur names ..

Gen X here,

Millennial. I had to take a root words class in grade school, with the promise it would help us become lawyers and doctors. It did not. It has helped me win a couple pub trivia rounds.

I am a native Spanish speaker which makes me able to pick up the meaning of about 30-40% of words in Latin, although the semantics often confuse me. As for Ancient Greek (and some Latin words that look nothing like Spanish too) I've picked up a fair amount of terms from scientific terms, names and mythology.

I don't know how much all this translates into, I've never formally studied either.

Semper Fidelis Tyrannosaurus

Not much Greek but I can make a good guess at Latin words having learnt quite a bit of French.

Millennial here. I got a degree in Classics so I learned both in college. I continued to take Latin in grad school. Unfortunately I never used them, because, you know, there are no jobs in Classics, so I realistically have lost both. I could probably identify nouns/verbs/articles/etc and some vocabulary in a sentence. But that's it. Plus, I'm learning Dutch now, and that has kicked out all other languages rattling around in my head.

I really enjoyed learning both! And doing so taught me a lot about grammar, linguistics, and etymology that I've carried with me through life even if the languages themselves didn't stick. Would recommend if you have the time.

Latin: I'm reading at a level of a second year student. Noun and adjective declensions are solid, but I am trying to hone in on different tenses of complicated verb forms, such as imperfect passive conjunctive. I can only speak Latin with small phrases derived from vocabulary and familiar texts I've read. My speech is quite limited since there is no one around me that has an interest in Latin, so I have to piece together and memorize what I want to say before saying it.

Ancient Greek: I know only the alphabet.

Both: I am a self learner in my adult years and did not take either language via schooling.

None

I was forced to take 4 years of Latin and I've basically reverted to "Salve Magistra, Italia Peninsula Est" levels. It never clicked with me. Every week was a struggle, I was a terrible student, and I remember jack shit. At best it helped me remember the names of stuff in anatomy class, which was actually interesting. I think the way it was taught is the worst fucking way to learn a language, like most 19th century educational theory.

I know like less than 10 phrases:

Etcetera Ad hoc Vice verca Veni vidi vici Carpe diem Spiritus Santus

And some other I forgot how to write them and correect pronunciation because I never use them. Generally I only know words or phrases, not even a full sentence.

Gen Z, I know nothing about either language. Probably a few words but no idea which ones.

I used to memorize the Greek Alphabet when I was young

There are 24 letters in the Greek Alphabet, so I missed 4.

Memento mori = Remember you will die

Learned it while playing persona 3.

SPQR means Rome

Gen Z, none.

Enough high school Latin and amateur Greek to puzzle out the meaning of most new words I see.

I know too much. Somehow the ancient greek teacher talked me into taking it. I wonder if there is any ethics violation in an advisor advising his advisees to take his own class... It's a great way to convince the bosses that there is a lot of interest in your subject and thus you should continue to be employed, I suppose.

After all this time, I wouldn't be able to walk up to the ancient athenian murder speeches and understand them, but give me a dictionary and two days and I probably would be able to pick it all up again.

A bunch of abreviations, like etc., eg., and some others like quid pro quo

Just what I learned in science classes, but I took quite a few in my 7 years of university.

latin, a little bit. it was a required 7th grade class. it's been 25(!!!) years and I'm neither a lawyer or a catholic clergy so my retention of it is almost non existent. the things I do still hang on to are from my exposure to spanish and french at work where I can remember a few base words.