Latin

I was just reviewing chapter 6 in my Russian coursebook, when I saw this:

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m/f/n
его [ye-vo] his (NB: г pronounced [v] in this word)

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The NB is what caught my attention. I realized that I had a general idea of what the abbreviation signalled - “pay attention to this!” - but I wasn’t sure what the abbreviation actually stood for. Google to the rescue:

Nota Bene is a Latin phrase meaning “Note Well,” coming from notâre—to note. It is in the singular imperative mood, instructing one individual to note well the matter at hand. (The pluralis form is notate bene.)

In present day English, it is used to draw the attention of the reader to a certain (side) aspect or detail of the subject on hand, translating it as “pay attention” or “take notice”. It is often written in the abbreviated form: N.B.

By the way, if you’re curious, the Cyrillic letter г in его is normally pronounced [g], like in garden.

Before I forget…

I was taking a look at my copy of Wheelock’s Latin yesterday, and while looking at it, I recalled having a hard time getting an answer key to the exercises, when I was using the book years ago on my own. I dropped by the amazon.com page for the book, and found that some other folks had issues with getting it as well. (Oddly, some people didn’t have any trouble getting it - it seems that the publisher is quite random as to whether or not they’ll give you the login information for the answer key.)

I think it’s silly that the answer key isn’t made available for free on the Wheelock site, without the need for any login information, but I suppose HarperCollins is making a killing on selling the answer keys to instructors (sarcasm alert).

I thought that perhaps, after all this time of so many people having issues in getting the answer key, someone might have made up an answer key and made it available for free. I was right. The site Textkit.com has a free answer key for Wheelock’s Latin; the key is up-to-date for the 6th edition of the book. Here is the associated forum thread about the answer key, and any errors that have been corrected in it.

By the way, if you’re learning Latin or ancient Greek (or want to get started doing so), definitely dig around at Textkit.com. They have free books and other resources for learning the languages.

One of the blogs I read, Copyblogger, posted an article on common mistakes made when writing. One of the things they wrote about was the use (or misuse!) of the Latin abbreviations i.e. (id est) and e.g. (exempli gratia). Here’s what they had to say about the abbreviations:

6. i.e. vs. e.g.

Ah, Latin… you’ve just gotta love it. As antiquated as they might seem, these two little Latin abbreviations are pretty handy in modern writing, but only if you use them correctly.

The Latin phrase id est means “that is,” so i.e. is a way of saying “in other words.” It’s designed to make something clearer by providing a definition or saying it in a more common way.

Copyblogger has jumped the shark, i.e., gone downhill in quality, because Brian has broken most of his New Year’s resolutions.

The Latin phrase exempli gratia means “for example”, so e.g. is used before giving specific examples that support your assertion.

Copyblogger has jumped the shark because Brian has broken most of his New Year’s resolutions, e.g., promising not to say “Web 2.0,” “linkbait,” or “jumped the shark” on the blog in 2007.

Well! I feel rather silly. I’ve been using these two abbreviations incorrectly for a long time. I thought both of them meant essentially, “for example.” Apparently I was wrong!

I don’t know where I learned it - perhaps it was ages ago in elementary school, or on one of the countless websites I’ve read over the years - but I had it in my head that the abbreviation i.e. stood for “in example.” Apparently, that’s not the case.