Latin · Recommended resources
The best books to learn Latin
The site is free and frequency-first, but a good book still earns its place on the desk. These are the Latin textbooks, grammar guides, graded readers and references we would actually recommend, grouped by what they are for so you can pick the one gap you need to fill. Every pick links to both Amazon UK and Amazon US.
Some links below are Amazon affiliate links: if you buy through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only list books we would genuinely recommend, and the picks are never paid placements.
All-in-one courses
Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, Pars I: Familia Romana
Top pickHans H. Orberg
Beginner
The famous all-Latin course: 35 chapters that never use a word of English, teaching entirely through carefully sequenced context. It front-loads high-frequency vocabulary and buries you in comprehensible repetition, which is exactly how we think a language should be learnt. Start here, not with Wheelock.
A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin
Top pickJohn F. Collins
Beginner
The standard course in Church Latin: Jerome's Bible, the liturgy, canon law and the Ambrosian hymns rather than Caesar's body counts. If your Latin goal is prayers, plainchant or papal documents, learn from this and skip the classical detour entirely.
Wheelock's Latin, 7th Edition
Frederic M. Wheelock and Richard A. LaFleur
Beginner
The grammar-first classic, still the set text in half the universities of the English-speaking world. Tables, drills and real Cicero from early on. We would start with Orberg and keep this as the second opinion, but careful, analytical learners genuinely thrive on it.
Cambridge Latin Course Book 1
Cambridge School Classics Project
Beginner
The school course a generation of British learners grew up on, following one Pompeian household towards its Vesuvian end. Story-led and genuinely charming; a fine reading-first alternative if Orberg's all-Latin approach feels like the deep end.
Verbs
Dictionaries
Book cover images via Open Library.
Prefer to start for free?
A book is a fine companion, but you do not need one to begin. Our Latin curriculum walks you through the most common words in frequency order, with the grammar and a graded story built in.
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