One way to learn vocabulary words is to drill with flashcards. There are various ways to construct cards; here is one system that will help you connect similar words.
Use 3x5 index cards. On each card, put Latin words in one column and their English definitions in the other, like this:
Nouns
| exercitus, -us, m | army |
| feles, -is, c | cat |
| puer, pueri, m | boy |
| puella, -ae, f | girl |
| res, rei, f | thing, matter, business |
| animal, -is, n | animal |
| nox, noctis, f | night |
Set up one card for each major part of speech (nouns, adjectives, verbs), and set up another card for all the other parts of speech put together (pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, adverbs, and interjections).
Set up another card for each of the obvious kinds of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. That is, create 5 more cards for nouns, one for each declension; 4 for verbs, one for each conjugation; and 2 for adjectives, one for first-and-second declension and one for third declension. Here’s a sample:
Third-declension nouns
| feles, -is, c | cat |
| navis, -is, f | ship |
| nox, noctis, f | night |
| frigor, -oris, n | cold |
| animal, -is, n | animal |
Set up additional cards for compound words, particularly verbs. Here, you will have one card for each preverb (preposition used as a prefix) and one for each verb root. For example, you might have the following:
Verbs with ad-
| adsum, adesse, adfui | be present |
| affero, afferre, attuli, adlatum | bring to |
| adgredior, adgredi, adgressus sum | go to, approach; begin |
Compounds of fero
| affero, afferre, attuli, adlatum | bring to |
| aufero, auferrre, abstuli, ablatum | carry away, remove, carry off |
| infero, inferre, intuli, illatum | bring in; bellum inferre = wage war |
| defero, deferre, detuli, delatum | bring down, bring away, offer |
You may also want to set up cards for semantic groups, like this:
Animals
| animal, -is, n | animal |
| feles, -is, c | cat |
| mus, muris, c | mouse |
| elephantus, -i, c | elephant |
| canis, -is, c | dog |
As you prepare reading assignments, you will look up words and write their definitions in your reading notes. Mark the words you feel you should already know, and the new words you’d like to add to your vocabulary. Once you’ve finished the reading assignment, take out your flashcard deck and transcribe the marked words onto the proper cards. Every noun, verb, and adjective should appear on at least two cards.
You can then use the cards for drill by covering up one column and supplying
the other.