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You are here: Experts > Homework Help > Latin Language > Ancient Languages > translation
Expert: Maria - 11/1/2009
Question
Can you help me make sure this is the correct Latin translation. I'm trying to translate "give me liberty or give me death" but was told just to try "liberty or death". I came upon "libertatem aut mortem" is this correct? Thank you
Answer
Hello,
The phrase "Give me liberty or give me death" translates correctly as follows:
-“Aut libertatem aut mortem da mihi, quaeso”, if the command “Give” is addressed to only one person.
-”Aut libertatem aut mortem mihi date, quaeso”, if the command “Give” is addressed to more than one person.
But, if you are looking for a translation of "Liberty or death”, you must say simply ”Aut libertas aut mors”, NOT "Libertatem aut mortem” where the words “libertatem” and “mortem” are in the accusative case which in Latin can be used only as a direct object of a verb that there is not here.
To conclude, here are the correct Latin sentences:
-“Aut libertas aut mors” meaning "Liberty or death"
-“Aut libertatem aut mortem da mihi, quaeso” as well as "Aut libertatem aut mortem mihi date, quaeso” meaning "Give me liberty or give me death" in the 2nd person singular or in the 2nd.person plural, as I've explained above.
Best regards,
Maria
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GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS OF “Liberty or death”:
-Liberty = LIBERTAS (subject, nominative case)
-or =AUT...AUT (Latin repeats the “or”)
-death= MORS (subject, nominative case)
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GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS OF “"Give me liberty or give me death":
-Give = DA (2nd.person singular, imperative of DO, I give) or DATE (2nd.person plural, imperative of DO, I give)
-me = MIHI (dative of the personal pronoun, as the verb DO requires the dative case)
-liberty= LIBERTATEM (direct object, accusative of LIBERTAS, 3rd.declension)
-or = AUT…AUT (Latin repeats the “or”)
-give = omitted in Latin as it’s not necessary to repeat this verb.
-me = omitted in Latin as it’s not necessary to repeat this pronoun.
-death = MORTEM (direct object, accusative of MORS, 3rd.declension)
Note that I’ve added the interjection QUAESO as a polite expression of entreaty meaning ‘I beseech you', ‘I pray', ‘please’.
As you can see, Latin word order can be different from English. Latin is in fact an inflected language where syntactical relationships are indicated by the endings of each term, not by the order of the words.
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