Say something today: hello, how are you, my name is

You can hold your first Latin conversation before you have met a single declension. These phrases are real: Plautus put them in his street characters' mouths, Cicero signed his letters with Vale, and people say them today at spoken-Latin meetups and on living-Latin podcasts. Learn each one whole, the way you learned thank you.

Hello and goodbye

Salve is the one to learn first: any time of day, friend or stranger. Literally it means be well, and Vale means be strong, farewell. Add -te and you are talking to a group:

• Salve, amice! - Hello, friend!
• Salvete, amici! - Hello, friends!
• Valete, omnes! - Goodbye, everyone!

123

1. 1Salve, amice!
2. 2Salve!
3. 3Salvete!

Latin has no polite you: the friend and the older stranger both get salve. Only the group changes it, to salvete.

That -te is your first piece of Latin grammar, absorbed for free: the plural of a command. You will greet rooms as often as people, so the habit settles in long before you meet the word imperative.

Getting by

These carry the first minute of any conversation. Learn the question and its answer as a pair:

Do not analyse mihi and tibi yet. They are to me and to you, and one day that will delight you; today they are just the sounds the phrases start with. Here is the whole exchange:

• Salve! Quid est tibi nomen? - Hello! What's your name?
• Mihi nomen est Marcus. Quid agis? - My name is Marcus. How are you?
• Bene mihi est, gratias. - I'm fine, thanks.

Quid agis? is for one person. Ask a group, and the verb takes the group ending: Quid agitis? - How are you all?

Non intellego is quietly the most useful sentence a beginner owns. It keeps a conversation alive when everything else has fallen apart, by asking the other person to slow down or try again.