Expert: Maria - 1/13/2012

Question
How is "Strength in doing what is necessary, Courage in doing what is right." translated from English to Latin?

Answer
Hello,

"In rebus necessariis Fortitudo, in rebus iustis Virtus" is the best translation of "Strength in doing what is necessary, Courage in doing what is right" whose literal version would be however “Fortitudo in rebus faciendis necessariis, Virtus in rebus faciendis iustis”.

As you can see, in my first translation I've omitted the verb "faciendis"( in doing) which in Latin can be implied.

Read more below.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-Strength =FORTITUDO (nominative, 3rd.declension)

-in doing = IN FACIENDIS (gerundive in the ablative case as the preposition IN takes the ablative). As I've already said , FACIENDIS can be omitted.

-what is necessary = REBUS NECESSARIIS (ablative plural of RES, 5th.declension, + NECESSARIIS, ablative plural of NECESSARIUS). Note that IN REBUS NECESSARIIS means literally "in the necessary things".

-Courage = VIRTUS (nominative, 3rd.declension)

-in doing = IN FACIENDIS (see above)

-what is right =REBUS IUSTIS (ablative plural of RES, 5th.declension, + IUSTIS, ablative plural of the adjective IUSTUS). Note that IN REBUS IUSTIS means literally "in the right things".



As you can see, Latin word order can be different from English for Latin is an inflected language where syntactical relationships are indicated by the inflectional endings, not by the order of the words.