Expert: Maria - 2/17/2010

Question
I'm writing a book. The ocean is charted, but I can't quite get it in the air just yet.
There's some Latin at the beginning, and it's too complicated to search for. I was hoping to translate the following in quotes from English to Latin:
"Cease your struggle!"
"Tell me your name."
"Why are you here?" Unless you state your name and business, you will not go free."

Answer
Hello,

Here are the Latin phrases you asked me:

-“Desiste!” ( 2nd.person singular) or  “Desistite!” ( 2nd.person plural). They both mean “Cease your struggle!”.


-“Mihi tuum dic nomen!” ( 2nd.person singular)  or  “Mihi vestrum dicite nomen!” ( 2nd.person plural). They both mean “Tell me your name”.


-“Cur hic es? Nisi nomen ac negotium dices, liber non eris” ( 2nd.person singular) or “Cur hic estis? Nisi nomen ac negotium dicetis, liberi non eritis” (2nd.person plural).
They both mean “Why are you here?Unless you state your name and business, you will not go free”.

Please note that while in English the imperatives “Cease” and “Tell”,the present indicative “you are” and “you state” as well as the possessive “your” refer to either a 2nd.person singular or a 2nd.person plural, in Latin there are different endings for the verbs and different adjectives for “your”.

See below for grammatical analysis.

Best regards,
Maria
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GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS

-Cease your struggle = DESISTE  (imperative  in the 2nd.person singular, if this command is addressed to  only one person)  or  DESISTITE  (imperative  in the 2nd.person plural, if this command is addressed to many  persons).
Note that the verb DESISTO in the 1st.person singular  means exactly “I cease my struggle”.
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- Tell = DIC (from the verb DICO, I tell, in the imperative, 2nd.person singular, if this command is addressed to  only one person)  or  DICITE  (imperative  in the 2nd.person plural, if this command is addressed to many  persons).

-me = MIHI (dative case)

-your = TUUM (accusative neuter of the possessive 2nd.person singular TUUS agreed with NOMEN) or  VESTRUM (accusative neuter of the possessive 2nd.person plural VESTER  agreed with NOMEN)

-name = NOMEN (direct object, accusative neuter, 3rd.declension)
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-Why = CUR

-are you = ES (from the verb SUM, I am, 2nd.person singular, if this verb refers to  only one person) or ESTIS  (2nd.person plural, if this verb refers to  many  persons).

-here = HIC

-Unless = NISI

-you state = DICES (from the verb DICO, I state, 2nd.person singular, if this verb refers to  only one person)  or  DICETIS  (2nd.person singular, if this verb refers to  many  persons).
Note that in Latin we must use the future tense, not the present.

-your =TUUM  or VESTRUM (see above)

-name =NOMEN (see above)

-and = AC

-business = NEGOTIUM (direct object, accusative neuter, 2nd.declension)

-you will not go = NON ERIS ( future of the verb SUM, I am, 2nd.person singular, if this verb refers to  only one person)  / ERITIS  (future, 2nd.person plural, if this verb refers to  many  persons).

-free =LIBER (nominative masculine singular) or LIBERI (nominative masculine plural)

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  inflectional  endings, not by the order of the words.