The art of Latin translation is one which seems to be shrouded in mystery. It is my aim through this humble node to attempt to give some basic tips on translating Latin for the semi-layman. This is useful when nitpicking and translating school mottoes. I will undertake this task by means of a simple example.
Sentence 1
Caesar Ambiorigem necavit.
Step 1 - Find the verb.
Verbs in Latin have myriad endings and can be very difficult to find. Endings to look out for:
- -o or -m or -i - First person singular
- -s - Second person singular
- -t - Third person singular
- -mus - First person plural
- -tis - Second person plural
- -nt - Third person plural
And in the
passive voice:
- -r - First person singular
- -ris - Second person singular
- -tur - Third person singular
- -mur - First person plural
- -mini - Second person plural
- -ntur - Third person plural
Using this, we can be fairly sure that
necavit is the verb, and that it is active and in the third person singular. However, before we can supply a meaning, we need to know its
tense (the point in time at which the action took place.) The tenses in Latin are:
- The pluperfect - recognisable by endings in -eram, -eras, -erat etc. Meaning 'I had loved'.
- The perfect - recognisable by endings in -i, -is, -it etc. Meaning 'I have loved' or 'I loved'.
- The imperfect - recognisable by endings in -bam, -bas, -bat etc. Meaning 'I was loving', 'I began to love' or 'I used to love'.
- The present - recognisable by endings in -o, -s, -t etc. Meaning 'I love'
- The future - recognisable by endings in -bo, -bis, -bit or a vowel change from the basic present endings. (Rarer) Meaning 'I will love.'
- The future perfect - recognisable by endings in -ero, -eris, -erit etc. Meaning 'I will have loved.'
So now we know that
necavit is in the perfect. All that remains is to find its meaning. Looking in a
dictionary under nec would find the verb
neco. After the word would be a number 1 in brackets: (1). This tells us the verb's
conjugation.
Latin Conjugations
Latin has five conjugations or 'groups' of verbs. These are numbered 1, 2, 3, 3 and a half (mixed), 4. The Romans apparently had a phobia of the number 5. The conjugations behave as follows:
First conjugation declines in the present thusly: amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant. It has a basic vowel of 'a'. It has principle parts: amo, amare, amavi, amatum. The principle parts tell us the form of the perfect stem (amavi) from which the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect tenses are formed.
Second conjugation desclines in the present thusly: moneo, mones, monet, monemus, monetis, monent. It has a basic vowel 'e'. Principle parts: moneo, monere, monui, monitum.
Third conjugation declines in the present thusly: rego, regis, regit, regimus, regitis, regunt. Basic vowel 'i'. In the future, changes its vowel: regam, reges, reget, regemus, regetis, regent. Principle parts: rego, regere, rexi, rectum.
Mixed or 3.5th conjugation declines in the present thusly: capio, capis, capit, capimus, capitis, capiunt. Basic vowel 'i'. Future in 'a': 'capiam'. Principle parts: capio, capere, cepi, captum.
4th conjugation declines in the present thusly: audio, audis, audit, audimus, auditis, audiunt. Future in 'a'. Principle parts: audio, audire, audivi, auditum.
This tells us that necavit comes from the first conjugation verb 'neco' meaning 'I kill'. The meaning of necavit is therefore: 'he killed' or 'he has killed'.
Step 2 - Hunt the subject
All Latin verbs contain a subject - within the word 'amo' is the word 'I'. The meaning of the verb is 'I love', not just 'love'. However, Latin frequently supplies a subject, especially for the third person. A subject is a noun in the nominative case. This can be recognised by a noun with no special ending added on to it. You look up the word for 'soldier' in the dictionary and are given a basic form. If you see that basic form in the sentence, you can have a good idea that the word is the subject. In the plural, look for 'i' or 'a' or 'es' endings. In this case, if you look up 'Ambiorigem', you are unlikely to find anyone called that. This tells us that the word has a special ending on it and is not nominative. However, Caesar has no such ending and is subject. Since there is only one verb, we can assume he is subject to that verb: 'Caesar killed' or 'Caesar has killed'.
Step 3 - Hunt the object
Objects in Latin are normally shown by the accusative case. The object of the verb is the thing which is having the verb done to it. In this case, we know it must be Ambiorigem because neco requires an object and Ambiorigem is the only word left. Nouns in the accusative can be spotted in the singular by endings in -m (or occasionally -s) and in the plural by endings in -os or -as.
Step 4 - Compile the sentence
From our analysis, we have a translation of 'Caesar has killed Ambiorix' or 'Caesar killed Ambiorix'. Now you must ask yourself some questions.
- Does it make sense?
- Which is the best alternative of the ones (if any) I have?
- See question 1.
Well, it looks like it makes sense. As for question 2, since this has obviously happened a long time in the past, the
aorist ('Caesar killed Ambiorix') seems better. Of course, if this were quoted speech from someone at the time, 'Caesar has killed Ambiorix' would be better.
Of course there are many other elements to a Latin sentence, but these steps should stand you in good stead for a start. I suggest a copy of Kennedy's Latin Primer for the insane (or interested).
OK, let's continue this little vade mecum. Here's our next sentence.
In horto Caesaris cum Fabula ambulabam
Step 1 - Find the verb
This is fairly straightforward. Ambulabam is our verb, and applying our analysis, we can see that it is in the imperfect, first person singular. It has a key vowel of 'a', which we can see from the 'la' section before the 'bam' ending. Our meaning is therefore 'I was walking' or 'I began to walk' or 'I used to walk'.
Step 2 - Find the subject
Hmm, Caesari ends in an 'i', and Fabula ends with an 'a'. First, let's look at Fabula. Looking at Kennedy's Latin Primer, we can see that nominative plurals in -a are reserved for neuter nouns. Since Fabula is spelt with a capital letter, we can assume it is a name of a person or a place and unlikely to be neuter. Caesaris, however, is still in the running. The ways we can tell it is not the subject are twofold. First, the verb was in the first person singular, but this noun, to be nominative, would have to be in the plural (and have an alternative spelling), so cannot be subject to the verb. Second, throughout Roman history, there was only ever one Caesar at a time, so having 'Caesars' would be a challenge. We can therefore conclude that there is no additional subject to the verb and the meaning remains as 'I was walking' or 'I began to walk' or 'I used to walk'.
Step 3 - Find the object
In this case, this step is unnecessary, since the verb 'to walk' cannot take an object, unless it's a dog. Since this usage is not found in Roman literature, we can assume that there is no object.
However, there are plenty of untranslated words flying around in this sentence. While not strictly object, they do depend on the verb. Let's look at cum and in. Both of these words are prepositions. Looking them up gives us 'with' and 'in' respectively. The dictionary also tells us that both take the ablative case. Could this give us a clue as to how to translate some of these words? Yes, it could. Let us take a look at horto. The 'o' ending appears only in second declension nouns in the dative singular and ablative singular. Since we have a preposition taking the ablative right next to it, we can see that it is probably in the ablative. Knowing that is second declension, we can assume that this noun has a basic form 'hortus'. Looking up this word gives us 'garden'. Hmm, 'in the garden'. Sounds good, right? (Notice that I have supplied the definite article, 'the'. Latin does not use these words, so we can supply them.) Now let's look at 'Fabula'. We know this word cannot be subject to the verb, so we have to look at what other cases it could be. It is a fair guess that this noun, with an ending in 'a', comes from the first declension. Looking in Kennedy gives us the following endings for this declension:
Singular Nominative: -a Vocative: -a Accusative: -am Genitive: -ae Dative: -ae Ablative: -a. Plural Nom: -ae Voc: -ae Acc: -as Gen: -arum Dat: -is Abl: -is.
Since we have eliminated the Nominative, we can see that this noun must be either Vocative singular or Ablative singular. Since the Vocative case is only used to address someone (as in 'o Brother, where art thou?), we can safely say that it is ablative. Taking it with the nearest preposition, we get 'with Fabula'. Good stuff.
Now all that remains is that pesky Caesaris. It's not nominative because we have a subject, it's not vocative because we're not talking to him, it's not accusative because we have no accusative, it's not ablative because there's no preposition to make it ablative, so it's either dative or genitive. Both of these cases can exist without a preposition, so both are feasible. The genitive is used for possession: 'of Caesar'. The dative is used for the words 'to' or 'for'. Since Caesaris comes soon after horto, we may presume they are related in some way. Looking at what makes best sense, we can see that 'the garden of Caesar' or 'Caesar's garden' would be a good translation.
Step 4 - Compile the sentence
OK. Looking at this, we have 'I was walking (or used to walk, or began to walk) with Fabula in Caesar's garden.' Let's follow our steps. Does it make sense? Yes. Which is the best alternative? Again, this depends on context, but we can say that taken out of context, 'I was walking' sounds best. Does it still make sense? Yes. Right, we're done. On, my young Padawan.
Sentence 2
amo pulcherimmam ancillam quae Romae habitat.
Step 1 - Find the verb
OK, there seem to be two verbs. amo and habitat. This presents us with a problem. They don't have the same subject, (one is first person, the other is third) so they can't coexist in the same clause. This means that this sentence has more than one clause: one dependent on amo, the other on habitat.
Step 2 - Find the subject
Hmm, there doesn't seem to be a subject supplied for either. OK, we'll leave that and come back to it.
Step 3 - Find the object
Two candidates for this - ancillam and pulcherimmam. Let's look them up. ancilla is a slave-girl and looks like a good candidate to be an object. pulcherimma, however, is not to be found in the dictionary. This is because it is the superlative form of 'pulcher' - the adjective meaning beautiful. This form can be recognised by the 'imm*' suffix. This adjective obviously agrees with ancillam, so we can say that the slave-girl is most beautiful or very beautiful. Now, what is she object to? Well, habitat, meaning 'he/she/it lives', is unlikely to take an object, so we can say it is object of amo. 'I love the/a very beautiful/most beautiful slave-girl.' Sounding good.
Wait, that sounds like a sentence in itself! Could this be our first clause dependent on amo? Let's have a look at the remaining three words:
quae Romae habitat
Step 1 - Find the verb
habitat, as already discussed.
Step 2 - Find the subject
While 'he/she/it' would be legitimate here, it seems rather inadequate considering that this clause must link with the other. Let's look at this 'quae' word then. Kennedy's section on pronouns tells us that this is a pronoun meaning 'who' or 'which'. quae can be the feminine singular nominative form. 'who lives': looking good.
Step 3 - Find the object
Well, no object here really. However, Romae looks like an ablative. Well, the ablative needs a preposition normally, but not here. With towns, cities, and small islands (don't ask me what 'small' is), a preposition is not needed when you want to say 'in' or 'at'. So, 'at Rome' or 'in Rome'? Sounds good to me.
Step 4 - Compile the sentence
'I love the/a most beautiful/very beautiful slave-girl who lives in/at Rome.' Does it make sense? Yes. OK, let's pick from our alternatives. 'A' sounds better here, since there is (or was) probably more than one slave-girl in Rome. Most beautiful/Very beautiful. Well, it depends on context and your preference. I think that 'very beautiful' sounds nicer, though. The last is just basic English: 'in Rome'. Therefore: 'I love a very beautiful slave-girl who lives in Rome'. Does it still make sense? Yes. Well done.
Sentence 3
What, you thought you'd finished? No chance!
Nonne hiems, quae incendiis magnis multisque belli inter gentes omnes tertii inducatur, inhibeat orbem terrarum ne nimium calescat?
Whoa there! This is a sentence of Ciceronian length. Well, let's take a deep breath and see what we can do.
Step 1 - Hunt the verb
There appear to be 3 verbs here - inducatur, inhibeat and calescat. (Yes, I know that there are other possible verbs, but I'm cutting out the stage of looking up words to find out whether they could be verbs or not, because I reckon you're up to that by now.)
There are also quite a few commas here. I reckon we've got us another one of those clausal sentences, like the last one. Let's try to split it up.
There's that quae again. Bound to be introducing a clause. It's also preceded by a comma. Let's assume that everything between those two commas is a separate clause. Since this would, by the nature of the word 'quae', be a subordinate clause - one that cannot make much sense on its own - let's look at the rest of the sentence.
Nonne hiems inhibeat orbem terrarum ne nimium calescat?
Step 1 - Hunt the verb
God, we still have two! OK, there's either another subordinate clause or there's a conjunction. A quick scan for common Latin conjunctions (et, sed, vel, aut, etc.) yields no goods. But wait, what's this 'ne'?
Here's the trouble with Latin; however much you know, there always seems to be something else lurking around a corner waiting for you with teeth and claws and blood and such. The behemoth that you have just unearthed is the subjunctive.
The Latin subjunctive
The best description of the subjunctive I have come across is that it's the verb in away colours. Like a football team's away strip, the subjunctive is a lot more hassle than it's worth, and it would be easier for all involved if they just played topless. Nonetheless, it's here, and you need to know about it.
The present
In the present, a vowel change occurs.
Group 1's main vowel changes from 'a' to 'e': amem, ames, etc.'
Group 2 gains an 'a': 'moneam, moneas etc.'
Group 3's main vowel changes from 'e' to 'a': 'regam, reges, etc.'
Group 4 gains an 'a': 'videam, videas etc.'
The imperfect
Easy, just take the infinitive and add the normal endings (m, s, t, mus, tis, nt).
The subjunctive occurs after 'ut' and 'ne' (most of the time), in certain clauses, and in theoretical questions as the Latin form of the conditional tense.
And so we see that here we have not one, but two verbs in the subjunctive. The latter, calescat is there because of 'ne'. We can therefore translate this 3-word clause:
'so that he/she/it might not (ne) heat up (calescat) too much (nimium).'
Yes, 'ne' says a lot in two letters. English has declined since 'lest' became an old-sounding word; it fits perfectly here.
OK, so the rest of the clause looks like this:
Nonne hiems inhibeat orbem terrarum?
Looking more manageable, now isn't it? You will notice the question mark, and if I tell you that 'nonne' is a question word which expects the answer 'yes', that deals with that. It also gives us a clue to the fact that 'inhibeat' is subjunctive because this is a theoretical question.
Step 1 - Find the verb
'inhibit', mean prevent. Stop bugging me!
Step 2 - Find the subject
'hiems' appears to be a noun or adjective in its root form. The dictionary tells us that it's a noun meaning 'winter'. There isn't anything here agreeing with it, so we'll move on.
Step 3 - Find the object
Hmm. 'orbem' or 'terrarum'? Well, 'terrarum' seems to have a genitive plural ending, but 'orbem', meaning globe, looks more promising. 'Terra' means 'earth' or land. It's in the plural here, because that's the Latin idiom. Sorry.
Step 4 - Compile the clause
Surely winter would prevent the earth ('orb of the earth', literally)?
We can put that together with our mini-clause to get:
Surely winter would prevent the earth so that it might not heat up too much?
Hmm, that makes sense, sort of. Let's find out what kind of winter by looking at that quae clause.
quae incendiis magnis multisque belli inter gentes omnes tertii inducatur
Step 1 - Find the verb
'inducatur', subjunctive because of the theoretical question, meaning 'brought on', and in the passive.
Step 2 - Find the subject
'quae' is the only singular thing in the nominative here.
Step 3 - Find the object
The verb's passive, so there is no object.
Step 4 - Compile the clause
OK, we have 'which would be brought on'. We're looking for a 'by', which would be in the ablative. No shortage of those: 'incendiis magnis multisque' seems to fit the bill, and it's a package in itself, meaning 'many large fires' (specifically, the kind of fires that don't start by accident, if you know what I mean?)
We still have more, though. 'belli' seems to go with 'tertii' - 'in the 3rd war'. This sounds like Nostradamus. Take this with 'inter gentes omnes' ('between all countries'), and we appear to have 'in the third world war'.
So, we've got 'which would be brought on by many great fires in the third world war'. Well, if it's a war, they're more likely to be bombs, and they must be pretty awesome if they're going to bring on a winter. Specifically, nukes. Those Romans certainly were forward thinking.
Unfortunately, their idioms weren't as nifty as ours, and we could just say 'nuclear winter' for all of that. I think we will.
Step 4 - Compile the sentence
'Surely nuclear winter would prevent the Earth, so that it might not heat up too much?'
Hmm, the Earth heating up too much? Sounds like the Greenhouse Effect to me.
'Surely nuclear winter would stop the Greenhouse Effect?'
Or, in more natural language:
'Wouldn't nuclear winter cancel out the Greenhouse Effect?'
What a dumb question. I bet you're sorry you wasted the time to work out what it meant.
Well, that's most of what you need to know. The insane can take a look at the following sentences, dictionary firmly in hand.
- Noli nothis permittere te terere
- Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
- Sed vere, spectatores pulchri fuistis! Vos amo! Vos amo!