Expert: Maria - 6/19/2009

Question
How would you translate "Protect me so I can protect others" into Latin?  Thank you very much for your time.

Answer
Hello,

here’s the translation you asked me:

-“Me quaeso protege ut ceteros  ego protegere possim”

Have a nice day,
Maria
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GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS

-Protect = PROTEGE (2nd.person singular, imperative of PROTEGO, I protect)

-me = ME (personal pronoun in the accusative case, direct object)

-so = UT (conjunction which needs the subjunctive)

-I = EGO

-can = POSSIM (present subjunctive of POSSUM, I can)

-protect = PROTEGERE (infinitive of PROTEGO)

-others = CETEROS (direct object in the accusative plural of CETERI )

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.