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Ancient Languages/translate english to latin

Expert: Maria - 2/2/2009

Question
"enjoy life but prepare for eternity"

Answer
Hello,

The phrase “Enjoy life but prepare for eternity" translates as follows:

“Vita fruere, sed te ad aeternitatem para”

Best regards,
Maria
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GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS:

-Enjoy = FRUERE (2nd.person singular, imperative of the deponent verb FRUOR; I enjoy)

-life = VITA (ablative case, 1st.declension. The verb FRUOR takes in fact the ablative)

-but = sed

-prepare = TE... PARA ( 2nd.person singular, imperative of PARO)

-for = AD (preposition which takes the accusative case)

-eternity = AETERNITATEM (accusative of AETERNITAS, 3rd.declension).

As you can see, Latin word order can be different from English simply because Latin is an inflected language where syntactical relationships are indicated by the endings, not by the order of the words.

Questioner's Rating

Rating(1-10)	Knowledgeability = 10	Clarity of Response = 10	Politeness = 10
Comment	Thanks for your promptness and courtesy, unfortunately in short supply in today's world. My 40 year old Latin training had some of the phrase correct, but I'm afraid my grade would not have pleased my mother!