Latin Beyond GCSE

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P. 163: “the ablative is … a bit of a ragbag”: it might be helpful to point out that it is an amalgamation of three Indo-European cases.

Taylor is clearly fascinated with Latin grammar and its various subtleties, and one might deduce that he is used to teaching bright classes who share his enthusiasm.

The account of the tenses of the subjunctive used in indirect questions and their correlation with tenses of the indicative in the direct questions is unclear, incomplete and in places incorrect. This is not to say that the new additions are not welcome, nor that they will not be helpful to users. It has tonnes of examples for the different types of translation, comprehension, grammar and composition sections on the GCSE 9-1 language paper. An interesting feature here is that in the “lightly adapted” passages the Latin text is preceded by an English translation of the immediately previous lines to give students a clear idea of the context.

Also, there is no section on comparative clauses, though for some reason this may not be included in the specifications. This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. The visual presentation of the book, however, has certainly been looked at afresh: the new edition is no longer in monochrome, has illustrations, and is formatted similarly to Latin To GCSE and the new edition of Greek To GCSE.entitled “A2 practice passages”, contains passages for unseen translation and comprehension (both in the same passage). It will be less suitable perhaps for students at university doing Latin as beginners or with a GCSE Latin background and aspiring to a level commensurate with that of A level at least, and beyond. p. 21), and the logic behind the various rules (why does dum take the present indicative in unlikely places? Now having done the exam, I have moved on to John Taylor's "Latin Beyond GCSE" which appears to be equally informative and gradually moves on from GCSE to a higher level, with plenty of unseen passages for translation.

There is certainly evidence that he made use of Morwood's A Latin Grammar, which it would have been better for him to have avoided on the whole. In fact the tenses used are exactly the same as those for subordinate clauses in indirect speech, which such a table (see point 9) would show at a glance. The first part of the book introduces new constructions and the translation of sentences from English to Latin, with practice passages for unseen.Am not sure about all the negative things said about this seller by other people,,, because my experience was completely different, totally positive. However, for me the book serves its particular purpose well, and I would like my criticisms to be seen in that light. Subordinate clauses in oratio obliqua and conditional sentences in oratio obliqua would both benefit from tables showing at a glance the changes, and absence of changes, undergone by the verbs used in oratio recta. It is to be hoped that the forthcoming revision of Greek Beyond GCSE, the last of Taylor's course books to be revised, will be a proper revision in the full sense of the word.