Expert: Maria - 3/20/2010

Question
Hi Maria,

I was hoping you could help. I am currently designing my wedding invitations and as part of the design wanted to include "Dare to Dream" in Latin.

Ive found various translations but am unsure which one would be most suitable. We basically want it to mean to be strong and dont give up on your dreams.

Thank you for your time.

Answer
Hello,

"Dare to Dream" can be translated as follows:

-“Somniare aude!” (literal)

-“Somnia fingere aude eaque perfice!” (literally, “Dare to have dreams and achieve  them”).

Both the above phrase are correct, of course, and thus you can choose the one you like more, though the second one is more suitable for your thought, i.e. “to be strong and do not give up on your dreams”.

See below for grammatical analysis.

Best wishes,
Maria
___________________________________________________
Note that:

-Dare = AUDE (2nd.person singular, imperative of AUDEO, I dare)
-to Dream =SOMNIARE (infinitive of SOMNIO, I dream) ________________________________________________________________

-Dare = AUDE (see above)
-to have = FINGERE (infinitive of FINGO, I have, I imagine)
-dreams = SOMNIA (direct object, accusative plural of the neuter noun SOMNIUM, 2nd.declension)
-and = -QUE (enclitic conjunction attached to  the end of the pronoun EA)
-achieve  = PERFICE (2nd.person singular, imperative of  PERFICIO, I achieve, accomplish, fulfil)
-them = EA (direct object in the accusative neuter plural of the pronoun IS agreed with SOMNIA)

Please note that I've used the 2nd.person singular of the imperative mood (Dare =AUDE /  Achieve = PERFICE)as I think you are addressing to only one person.
If on the contrary the English pronoun "you" is related to a 2nd.person plural, as you are addressing to two or many persons, the Latin imperative mood would be AUDETE  / PERFICITE, both in the 2nd.person plural.


As you can see, Latin word order  is different  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 word order.