Learn Latin - Lesson 1

 

Like every other language, Latin has its own pronunciation rules. The rules you find here are the most important ones in order to be able to read a modal Latin text quite fluent - though possibly not completely correct.

The C is pronounced hard, as the K in kingdom.
The G is pronounced as in the French word garçon.
The AE is prounounced as AI.
The T is always pronouced as T, never as S.
The U is pronounced as the OU is you.
The QU is pronouced as the QU in the word quiet.
The Y is pronounced as UU.
The I can be pronounced short, but mostly it's long as IE.
And one of the most important rules, the V is pronounced as W (f. ex. in the word winter).

An example of the use of these rules is Veni vidi vici (a statement of J. Caesar), pronounced in Latin as 'weenie wiedie wiekie'. Caesar is pronounced as 'kaisar'.

The pronuciation rules on this page are those that are generally accepted as correct. They correspond with the Latin spoken in the first century before and the first century after Christ. The Christian Church introduced its own pronuciation rules for the Latin language in the beginning of the 20th century, based on the Italian language. This is the reason why Latin is often pronounced like Italian (although there is a huge difference between both languages).