Expert: Maria - 9/23/2009

Question
Hello Maria

I am currently decorating my hallway and I'm looking to have a phrase painted over an arched doorway which will be seen by guests as they come through the door.  This phrase means alot to me as I have been through an extremely hard last two years and I'm still here fighting!!!  The phrase is 'what doesn't kill us makes us stronger'

I'm looking forward to your translation, many thanks in advance.

Samantha

Answer
Hello Samantha,

glad to help you.

So, the sentence 'What doesn't kill us makes us stronger' can be translated as follows:

-"Quod  nos  non occidit nos fortiores facit”
-"Quod nos non necat nos fortiores facit"
-"Quod nos non interficit nos confirmat"

All the above translations are correct, of course.

Note that  the English phrase you mention is a variant of  “What doesn't kill me makes me stronger “ which is the translation of  the  German quote “Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker “  we read in  Friedrich Nietzsche, “Twilight of the Idols “(Maxims and Arrows, number 8).

Best regards
Maria
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GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS

-What =QUOD (nominative neuter of the relative pronoun QUI)

-doesn't kill =NON (negative adverb= not) OCCIDIT (from OCCIDO, I kill) / NECAT (from NECO, I kill)  / INTERFICIT(from INTERFICIO , I kill)

-us =NOS (direct object, accusative of the personal pronoun)

-makes=FACIT (from FACIO, I make)

-us=NOS(see above)

-stronger=FORTIORES (Accusative case, comparative of the adjective FORTIS,  agreed with NOS).
Please note that “makes stronger” can be translated also as CONFIRMAT which is the present indicative, 3rd person singular, of the verb CONFIRMO which means exactly ‘I make stronger”.

As you can see, Latin word order  differs from English. In Latin in fact  syntactical relationships are indicated by the inflexional endings, not by the order of the words. Therefore it is not necessary to adhere to a strictly defined order.