Owen had blonde hair, freckles, and a big smile. He could make anyone laugh. He had started learning Latin this year. Father told him the Saying of the Day in Latin: "Mea culpa."
"My fault," explained Father.
"It's okay," said Owen, "I forgive you."
Father looked puzzled. Today they were learning the new vocabulary words for Lesson 6. Father explained how each word was pronounced and then had Owen decline or conjugate it. In Latin, nouns are sorted by declensions and verbs are sorted into conjugations. The lesson had more nouns than verbs, so Owen mostly declined to learn his vocabulary.
Father said that the first word of the day was culpa, culpae. Owen asked why Father said it twice. Father explained that each noun has different case endings according to its declension. He said that culpae was the form of culpa in the genitive case. Owen asked if culp-eye meant a fault in your eye, but Father said that wasn't the case.
The next vocabulary word was Maria, which meant Mary. Father had Owen list all of the case endings of Maria, but Owen stopped on the fourth one, accusatively.
Next Father tried to explain what fuga meant, but Owen ran out of the room.
When Owen was sitting down again Father taught him the next word, which was luna. Owen declined Father's help. He already knew what luna meant from his mythology podcast, so he didn't need a teacher to moon about all of the possible derivatives he might know. Father apologized and said, "mea culpa."
Next Owen learned that unda meant wave. He asked if "undas" meant "you wave," and "undat" meant "she waves." Father explained that Owen was using personal endings, and that unda was really a noun. Owen tried not to take the disappointment personally. He felt a little underwhelmed, and waved his hand to ask for the next word.
The next word was Hispania. Hispania was 1st declension feminine noun. Owen though that if it was a feminine noun, it ought to be Herspania, but that wasn't the case either.
By the time they reached the noun silva, Owen felt like he was lost in the woods. Learning so many new vocabulary words in a single day could make him feel cranky and sleepy.
He fought to concentrate as father taught him what pugno meant. He judged that they must be near the end when he learned judico, considering how many new words they had learned. Distraction kept seizing him as he tried to learn occupo.
Finally they were on the last word, scribo. Scribo means "I write." Father wanted to quiz Owen on conjugating personal endings before he let Owen go.
"How would you say that we, as a family, write?"
"Scribimus!" shouted Owen
"And how would a group of very literary pelicans write?"
"Scribunt!"
"And how would a single frog write?" asked Father excitedly.
"Scribit! Scribit! Scribit!" shouted Owen.
Father wanted Owen to work on noun forms some more, but Owen declined.
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