08 / Comparison

Compare after you have something to compare.

AI can be useful as a second reading. It is much less useful when it arrives before the student has made any grammatical commitments.

viaFlaminia comparison workspace
viaFlaminia comparison workspace
08

Use it late

Comparison is strongest after a first draft.

If an AI translation appears first, it can flatten the student’s curiosity. The answer becomes something to accept, resist, or imitate. If it appears after analysis, it becomes a useful disturbance.

The student can ask why the generated translation differs: vocabulary, word order, idiom, tense, or simple error.

A healthy sequence

  • Read the sentence and mark the grammar first.
  • Write a close draft beside the Latin.
  • Compare only after the draft has made visible choices.
  • Accept no generated phrase without tying it back to the source.

AI should create questions about your draft, not erase the need for one.

Comparison rule

What to compare

Do not compare only final fluency. Compare decisions: which subject was supplied, which clause was subordinated, which ambiguity was resolved, and whether the generated sentence can explain its own confidence.