Personally vetted instructors
Latin for Beginners tutors, lessons & classes
Salve Salve, the universal Latin hello a teacher uses with a student walking into the classroom.
Personally vetted Latin tutors who teach the classical language from the ground up. Lessons that move from the alphabet and the five declensions through real reading of Caesar, Cicero, and Vergil.
Your instructors
Latin for Beginners tutors for private lessons & classes
The tutors below have the deepest classical-languages background on our roster. Several hold graduate degrees in Classics, Latin literature, or comparative philology, a few have taught Latin in school and university classrooms for years, and every one of them was met and vetted by Strommen directly before being listed. No marketplace.
Filter by location, age, or price, read the bios, then book a 30-minute free trial.
Below are the Strommen tutors who teach Latin to beginners. Photos, ratings, and rates are real. Click any card to read the tutor's background and book a free 30-minute trial.
Serge. Yvv. R
★★★★★
Français, Italiano, Español & Deutsch expert & native speaker. Join my helpful, engaging lessons !
- San Diego •
- Online •
- Groups Enrolling
Specialties: European Portuguese, Castellano (Spain), Parisian French, French for Kids, German for Kids, Italian for Kids, Hochdeutsch - Standard German, Belgian French, Business Italian, Abruzzese, Italian Literature, Italian Academic Writing, Business Spanish, Spanish for Travel, Spanish Dialect Coaching, Spanish Interpreting and Translating, Spanish for VIPs, Spanish for Kids, Québécois French - Canadian French, Meridional French, American Accent, Italian Dialect coach, French Dialect coach, German Dialect coach, Spanish Dialect coach, Italian Dialect Coaching for Actors, Catalan, Flemish, Dutch for Business, Dutch for Beginners, Dutch for Travel, Dutch for Kids, Conversational Dutch, Intensive Dutch, Wallon, American Accent Training, British Accent Training, Pronunciation Coaching, Accent Modification, Latin for Beginners, Latin for High School, Conversational Ukrainian, Ukrainian for Kids, Basque for Beginners, Conversational Catalan, Catalan for Beginners, Galician for Beginners, AP History Tutor, Document Translation, Legal Translation, Academic Writing Help, Business Writing, Argentinian Spanish (Castellano), Brazilian Portuguese, Intensive Spanish, DELE test, Medical Spanish, Marseille French, French for Canadian Citizenship TEF TCF, French for Opera Singers, CILS B1 Cittadinanza (citizenship), Conversational Portuguese, Portuguese for Business, Portuguese for Kids
Offers 30 min free-trial
As low as $39.00/hr Online
Serge. Yvv. R. Offers free-trial
Français, Italiano, Español & Deutsch expert & native speaker. Join my helpful, engaging lessons !Salut, ça va ou quoi, ça roule ? (French)— ¡Hola!; ¿Cómo va el vibe hoy? (Spanish)— Ciao raga, tutto top? (Italian)— Hallo, hallo Leute, was geht?...
Mihaela R
★★★★★
Cura ut valeas
- Santa Clarita •
- In-Person, Online
Specialties: Latin for Beginners, Latin for High School, Conversational Romanian, Romanian for Beginners
Salve! (Hello!) My name is Mihaela, I am a writer and a passionate, career-oriented teacher, having PhD in Philology. My expertise is to teach Latin Language and Literature for all levels and purposes ( from beginners to high proficiency, from just...
As low as $79.00/hr Online
Offers In-Person
Mihaela R.
Cura ut valeasSalve! (Hello!) My name is Mihaela, I am a writer and a passionate, career-oriented teacher, having PhD in Philology. My expertise is to teach Latin Language...
Lingua Latina — grammar & method
5 things every beginning Latin student meets early
These are the structural and pedagogical anchors that organize the first year of Latin. Knowing what each one is, and how it fits the larger picture, makes the early months feel less like memorization and more like recognizing patterns.
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01
Five declensions
Latin nouns belong to one of five declension classes, each with its own pattern of case endings. Declension one covers the -a stems (puella, "girl"). Declension two covers -us and -um stems (servus, "slave"; bellum, "war"). Declension three is the largest and messiest mixed group. Declension four returns to -us stems but a different set (manus, "hand"). Declension five is the small -es group (dies, "day"). Once you know which declension a noun belongs to, the case endings follow.
e.g. Puella videt vs. puellam video ("the girl sees" vs. "I see the girl").
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02
Four conjugations
Latin verbs belong to one of four conjugation classes, each with a distinctive present-stem vowel: first (-a, amo, amare, "to love"), second (-e, video, videre, "to see"), third (consonant stem, dico, dicere, "to say"), and fourth (-i, audio, audire, "to hear"). Knowing which class a verb belongs to lets you generate all six tenses, two voices, and three moods from a small number of root forms.
e.g. Amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant — the present tense of amare in its full pattern.
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03
Wheelock vs. Cambridge
The two dominant beginner textbook traditions. Wheelock's Latin is the standard American adult-beginner book, front-loaded grammar with reading passages from real authors. The Cambridge Latin Course is the British and American-school standard, a continuous narrative about a Pompeian family that introduces grammar inductively. Both work; the right one depends on your style.
e.g. Most adults choosing self-study lean Wheelock; most parents teaching middle-schoolers lean Cambridge.
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04
English cognates
A working reading knowledge of Latin sharpens English vocabulary in a way few other studies match. Almost every Latin verb and noun has a small constellation of English derivatives drawn from its root. Students meet twenty or thirty new English cognates a week in the first two months, which makes the early going feel like compounding interest rather than rote memorization.
e.g. Video, "I see," gives visible, vision, evident, provide, supervise, revise, and twenty more.
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05
Classical vs. ecclesiastical pronunciation
The two main pronunciation systems. Classical (restored, Ciceronian) is the reconstruction of how educated Romans spoke around 50 BCE: c as a hard k, v as a w. Ecclesiastical (Italianate, Church Latin) is the system the Catholic Church has used continuously since late antiquity: c before front vowels as ch, v as v. Both are legitimate; the choice depends on whether your interest is academic-classical or liturgical-musical.
e.g. Cicero is "KIH-ke-ro" in classical and "CHEE-che-ro" in ecclesiastical.
About Latin for Beginners
Where the Romance languages begin
Latin is the classical language of Rome, the parent of every modern Romance language (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, Occitan, Sardinian, Romansh), the working language of Western European intellectual life for roughly fifteen hundred years after the fall of the Roman Empire, and the language in which an enormous share of European literature, science, law, theology, and philosophy was originally written. A beginning Latin student is starting on a track that opens up the Aeneid, the speeches of Cicero, the histories of Tacitus, Augustine's Confessions, the medieval Latin of Aquinas and Abelard, the Renaissance Latin of Erasmus and More, and the Latin of the natural sciences from Newton's Principia onward. It is also a tool kit. A working reading knowledge of Latin sharpens English vocabulary in a way no other single study quite matches, and it gives a Romance-language student a backbone that makes Spanish, French, and Italian noticeably easier to pick up later.
The people who come to Strommen to start Latin tend to fall into a few clear groups, and naming which one you are tends to shape the first lesson. Some students are adults who studied a year or two of Latin in school and want to pick it back up properly, often because they have decided they want to read the Aeneid or the Vulgate in the original at some point. Some are homeschooling parents working through Wheelock or the Cambridge Latin Course with their children and wanting an adult tutor to keep the family pace honest. Some are graduate students or seminarians whose programs assume a reading knowledge of Latin they were never given. Some are lawyers wanting to actually understand the Latin phrases that show up in case law rather than parroting them. And some are simply readers who fell into the language sideways through history, theology, or poetry and want to do it right. A Wheelock-first student and a Cambridge-first student get different opening lessons, and a student preparing for graduate-level reading needs different ones still.
The early weeks of a serious Latin course are concrete and well-sequenced. You learn the alphabet (the same 23 letters Roman writers used, give or take a few medieval additions) and the classical pronunciation that linguists have reconstructed from the meter of Vergil and the spelling habits of ancient inscriptions. You learn that Latin nouns belong to one of five declensions and that each noun changes form across six cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, vocative) and two numbers. You learn that Latin verbs belong to one of four conjugations and that each verb conjugates across six tenses, two voices, and three moods. None of this is mysterious. It is a finite set of patterns that has to be sequenced properly by someone who has taught it before, and a good tutor can move a motivated adult through the first-year grammar in roughly nine to twelve months of weekly lessons with self-study in between.
The two textbook traditions worth knowing are Wheelock and the Cambridge Latin Course, and they take different paths to the same place. Wheelock's Latin is the standard American adult-beginner textbook: front-loaded grammar, careful sequencing, reading passages drawn from real Latin authors from chapter one onward, and an answer key that lets a self-motivated reader work through it independently. The Cambridge Latin Course is the dominant British and American-school approach: a continuous narrative about a Pompeian family, Caecilius and his household, that introduces grammar inductively through reading rather than explicitly through paradigms. Both work. Wheelock tends to suit adults who want the grammar spelled out and are not afraid of paradigm tables. Cambridge tends to suit younger learners and adults who want to feel the language carrying them through a story before the rules get named. Your tutor will recommend one based on your goals and learning style, and a few of our tutors are comfortable running either.
The English-vocabulary head start is real and worth naming early. A beginning Latin student meets the verb video ("I see") and immediately recognizes video, visible, vision, visual, evident, provide, revise, supervise, and another thirty common English words drawn from the same root. The verb dico ("I say") gives dictate, predict, contradict, verdict, indict, edict, dictionary, dictator. The noun aqua gives aquatic, aquarium, aqueduct. A motivated beginner is meeting twenty or thirty English derivatives a week within the first two months, and the cognate-spotting reflex becomes one of the more satisfying parts of the early going. This effect compounds for students who already speak Spanish, French, or Italian, where the cognate density runs much higher and individual word forms often map directly onto modern Romance vocabulary with predictable sound changes.
The question of which pronunciation system to use comes up early. The two main options are classical pronunciation (also called restored or Ciceronian), the reconstruction of how educated Romans of the late Republic would have spoken, and ecclesiastical pronunciation (also called Italianate or Church Latin), the system the Catholic Church has used continuously since late antiquity. Classical pronounces the c in cicero as a hard k and the v as a w; ecclesiastical pronounces them as ch and v. Both are legitimate. Most academic programs and most textbooks teach classical because it is the system the language used in the period most students want to read. Students whose interest is liturgical, musical (the Latin Mass, Vivaldi, Mozart's Requiem), or specifically Catholic-scholastic often prefer ecclesiastical. Your tutor will ask and calibrate.
Strommen has been teaching languages in Los Angeles since 2006, and the Latin track is one of the more specialized on our roster. Every tutor below was met and vetted by us in person. There is no marketplace here. Lessons run online for students worldwide and in person for those near Los Angeles, and most students begin with a free 30-minute trial so the tutor can see exactly where you sit before recommending a textbook and a pace. If your goal is exam-oriented (the National Latin Exam, AP Latin, CLEP credit), see our Latin for High School page, which covers the certification track specifically.
What you'll cover
Lessons & classes tailored to Latin for Beginners
The alphabet, pronunciation, and the first hundred words
The Latin alphabet and a reconstructed classical pronunciation, with attention to the vowel quantities (long and short) that drive the meter of Latin poetry and that English speakers tend to flatten. Tutors choose between classical and ecclesiastical pronunciation based on your goals and listen to your reading aloud in real time. The first hundred words are chosen to maximize cognate density with English so the early going feels like recognition rather than memorization.
The five declensions and the case system
All five noun declensions across all six cases and two numbers, taught as a finite pattern rather than as separate memorization tasks. Lessons teach you to parse a Latin sentence by reading the case endings first, which is how the language actually wants to be read, and to stop expecting English subject-verb-object order to do the work that the endings already do. By month three a motivated student is reading short prose passages with comprehension.
The four conjugations and the verbal system
All four verb conjugations across the six tenses (present, imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect, future perfect), two voices (active, passive), and three moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative). Lessons sequence the tenses in a deliberate order, present and imperfect first, then the perfect system, then the subjunctive once the indicative is stable. The participial system and the infinitive constructions get folded in as the reading earns them.
Real reading from chapter one
Both Wheelock and the Cambridge Latin Course put real Latin in front of students from the first chapters, and tutors keep that going. Early reading draws on simplified Caesar and short passages from the New Testament Vulgate; intermediate reading moves into unadapted Caesar, Cicero, and selections from Vergil's Aeneid; advanced beginners finish the first year reading short complete poems by Catullus or Horace. The point is to be reading actual Latin literature, even if slowly, by month nine.
FAQ
About Latin for Beginners lessons & classes
How long until I can read real Latin?
It depends on your hours and your steadiness between lessons. A motivated adult doing one or two lessons a week with consistent self-study can usually read simplified Caesar with comprehension within four to six months and can work through unadapted Caesar or short Vergil selections within nine to twelve months. Reading the Aeneid or Cicero's speeches at speed is a multi-year project. The grammar gets faster once the case system and the verb endings become second nature; the slow part is vocabulary depth and the literary register.
Should I use Wheelock or the Cambridge Latin Course?
Both are excellent and the choice depends on your style. Wheelock's Latin is the standard American adult-beginner book, with grammar spelled out explicitly, paradigm tables, reading passages from real authors, and an answer key. The Cambridge Latin Course is the British and American-school standard, with a continuous narrative about a Pompeian family that introduces grammar inductively through reading. Most self-studying adults lean Wheelock; most parents teaching middle-schoolers lean Cambridge. A few of our tutors are comfortable running either, so the trial lesson is the place to decide.
Will my Spanish, French, or Italian help me learn Latin?
Significantly, yes. The Romance languages inherit a very large share of their vocabulary directly from Latin, usually with predictable sound changes (Latin aqua, Spanish agua, Italian acqua, French eau). A Spanish or Italian speaker recognizes hundreds of Latin words immediately and intuits noun and verb endings from the modern reflexes. What the Romance languages do not give you is the full Latin case system (most of which they have lost), the synthetic passive, or the meter of classical poetry, which all still need to be learned.
Should I learn classical or ecclesiastical pronunciation?
Both are legitimate. Classical pronunciation is the reconstruction of how educated Romans of the late Republic would have spoken and is the system most academic programs and textbooks use. Ecclesiastical pronunciation is the Italianate system the Catholic Church has used continuously since late antiquity and is the right choice if your interest is liturgical, musical, or specifically scholastic. Your tutor will ask in the trial and calibrate. Switching between them later is straightforward; the spelling is the same.
Are there any native Latin speakers?
Not in the strict sense. Latin stopped being a first language in the late medieval period and is read rather than spoken as a vernacular today, although there is a small spoken-Latin movement (Living Latin, conventicula, the Vatican Latinitas office) that keeps an active conversational community alive. For nearly all students, Latin is a reading language, and the lessons are oriented around grammar, vocabulary, and translation rather than around speaking and listening. The reading-focused approach is the standard one and works very well.
How is Latin different from Greek?
Latin and Ancient Greek are the two great classical languages of the Western tradition, and many serious students eventually learn both. The grammar is structurally similar (both are highly inflected, both have rich case systems, both have a wealth of literature) but the alphabets, the vocabulary, the meters, and the literary traditions are distinct. Most students start with Latin because the English-vocabulary payoff is higher and the textbook apparatus is denser. Greek is often added later for theology, philosophy, or to read Homer and the New Testament. If you are deciding between them, start with Latin.
Can I take Latin lessons online or only in person?
Both. Most of our Latin tutors teach online via Zoom or Jitsi and work with students worldwide. Several also teach in person around Los Angeles. Reading-focused lessons work very well online because most of the lesson is spent on a shared text. The booking widget on each tutor's profile shows their available formats.
Ready for Latin for Beginners lessons or classes?
Book a free 30-minute trial with one of our personally vetted tutors. Private lessons or small-group classes — your choice.