Expert: Maria - 11/23/2010

Question
What would 'to make a difference, you have to be different' be in Latin?

Answer
Hello,

Here’s the Latin translation of “To make a difference, you have to be different”:

-“Ad discrimen faciendum, differens esse debes”.

Read more below.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-To make =AD FACIENDUM (gerundive neuter of FACIO, I make)

-a difference=DISCRIMEN  (neuter noun, 3rd.declension)

-you have to be = DEBES (2nd.person singular, present indicative of DEBEO, I have to) ESSE (infinitive of SUM, I am)

-different = DIFFERENS (adjective in the nominative case)

As you can see, Latin word order is 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.