On Teaching the Gerund and Gerundive in Latin

Extract

The task of elucidating the nature and use of the gerund and gerundive is notoriously one of the most difficult which the teacher of Latin has to face. He can draw no analogy between these forms and those used for the same purposes in English or in the other modern languages studied by his pupils; and the twofold antithesis between these two parts of the verb and between the uses of each in the nominative and in the oblique cases constitutes a puzzle whose adequate clarification by the usual methods must inevitably demand more time than can easily be devoted to a single construction. My fairly long experience of teaching first-year university students and of assessing S.C. and H.S.C. candidates certainly indicates that the gerund and gerundive have often been left behind ungrasped. And yet to hammer away at these constructions until, if ever, they are understood would be an obnoxious example of that ‘grind of grammar’ so justly condemned by most enlightened teachers. The fact is that we have here a usage which must be learnt gradually, not indeed by Direct Method or by the unaided impressions received in the reading of texts. A vigorous initial effort is necessary to grasp in general the essential character of the two forms, the difference between them, and their quite different behaviour in different circumstances, but, instead of overburdening the pupil's memory, whether he be a junior or a comparatively advanced pupil, and overtaxing his brain-power with the attempt to digest the complicated and conflicting details once and for all, I suggest that the system of gradual assimilation, based on a mnemonic table, may be as helpful to others' pupils as it seems to have been to mine. I have found it especially useful in ‘refresher’ lessons for pupils with a confused knowledge, rather than ignorance, of the construction.