Expert: Maria - 1/18/2012

Question
Hi, I woul like to know what "my children hold the key to my heart" is translated into Latin is. Thank you very much.

Answer
Hello,

“Filii mei clavem cordis tenent mei” is the translation you asked me.

Read more below.

All the best,
Maria
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Note that:

-my = MEI (nominative masculine plural of the adjective MEUS agreed with FILII)

-children = FILII (subject in the nominative masculine plural of the noun FILIUS, 2nd.declension)

-hold = TENENT ( 3rd.person plural, present indicative of TENEO, I hold)

-the key = CLAVEM (direct object in the accusative singular of CLAVIS, 3rd.declension)

-to my =MEI (genitive neuter singular of the adjective MEUS agreed with CORDIS).
As you can see, MEI can be either a nominative masculine plural or a genitive neuter singular, depending on the context.

-heart= CORDIS (genitive of the neuter noun COR, 3rd.declension)

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.