The Latin language was the language of ancient Rome, of the educated classes in Medieval Europe, and today, it continues to play an important role in many scientific fields, including biology and medical science, as well as theology and philosophy, and the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, whose official liturgical language is still Latin.

Many contemporary languages, even those that are not Romance languages (i.e. directly derived from Latin) have borrowed heavily from Latin in terms of words and expressions, grammatical rules and structure, etc. Many words in the English language itself are of Latin origin. The Latin language is known to be very exact, having precise terms for even slightly different concepts, or nuances of a single concept–no wonder it has been so useful in the natural sciences.

One of the hardest things to learn when someone is trying to learn Latin is the grammar and the word endings, the verb conjugations and noun declensions. Gender is also very important, and there are three genders in Classical Latin, as opposed to the two generally found in Romance languages (masculine, feminine, and neuter). The Italian and Sardinian languages are said to be the closest to the original Latin language.

While no longer the lingua franca of the modern world, many people want to learn Latin. While you won’t be able to converse with too many people in Latin, learning at least the basic grammatical principles of the Latin language, as well as some of the most common words and expressions that have been transplanted into modern languages, Latin can be very useful. Knowledge of Latin is also useful if you’re into classical philosophy, theology, the natural sciences, medicine, and law. There are many English-Latin and Latin-English dictionaries out there for those interested in learning Latin, as well as Latin textbooks and software to help you learn this amazing language.