salve, ave, vale (Hello and Goodbye)

Hello and Goodbye

Level 1

Choose the ending for one person or for several.

How It Works

Salve sounds like SAL-weh in classical Latin and SAHL-veh in Church Latin. Vale sounds like WAH-leh and VAH-leh.

The name of the person you greet follows in the vocative: Salve, Marce!

Salve and vale are commands in form, which is why each has a plural. Salve means be well, and vale means keep well.

You hear ave in the prayer Ave Maria and in the hymn Ave verum corpus, which you meet at Level 2.

Greeting several people with the singular form.
Salve, pueri!
Salvete, pueri!
Pueri means more than one boy, so the greeting takes the plural form salvete.

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

salve, ave, vale (Hello and Goodbye)Level 1Hello and Goodbye

The greetings are said aloud, so the two ways of reading Latin come first.

Patterns that build on this one.

salvesalveoavevalevaletevaleo

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