Expert: Maria - 3/6/2008

Question
Its been years since I have taken Latin and I've been wrestling with an online translation for days.  The phrase "Death is certain, its hour is not. Remember to live."   Does it translate as "Mors certa, hors incerta. Memento vivere?"  Are there female and male associations with words such as other languages?  Thanks in advance!

Answer
Hello,

The correct translation of the phrase "Death is certain, its hour is not. Remember to live” is the following:

“Mors certa, hora incerta. Memento vivere”.

As you can see, you made only one spelling mistake, that is “hors” instead of “hora”.

With regard to female and male associations with words, they exist in Latin, of course.

For example in “Mors certa, hora incerta” the masculine adjectives CERTUS / INCERTUS must agree with MORS and HORA which are feminine nouns. This is the reason why CERTUS / INCERTUS become CERTA / INCERTA in the nominative feminine singular.

As you certainly know, Latin is in fact an inflected language with five declensions, six cases, four conjugations, different concords between the adjectives and the nouns (masculine, feminine, neuter/singular, plural) and a very  complex syntax.
Therefore each word changes according to its function in a sentence.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-Death = MORS (nominative feminine, 3rd.declension)

-is : this verb would be EST, but it is omitted, for it is not necessary.

-certain = CERTA (nominative feminine of CERTUS, agreed with MORS)

-its  = this possessive is  omitted for it is implied in Latin.

-hour = HORA (nominative feminine, 1st.declension)

-is not = INCERTA (nominative feminine of INCERTUS, agreed with HORA). It means  literally, ‘uncertain’).

-Remember = MEMENTO (imperative, 2nd.person singular of MEMINI, I remember)

- to live = VIVERE (infinitive of VIVO, I live)