Expert: Maria - 1/9/2012

Question
I would like to translate the following phrase to Latin and was wondering if you could help me?
"If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it"

Thanks!!

Answer
Hello,

Here’s the translation you asked me:

-“Si quid  fastidis, id muta; nisi id mutare potes,illius tuam rei muta notionem”.

Read more below.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-If = SI

-you don't like =FASTIDIS (2nd.person singular, present indicative of FASTIDIO, I dislike)

-something = QUID (neuter of the pronoun ALIQUIS that drops  the first part “ali” as it is  preceded  by the conjunction SI)

-change = MUTA (2nd.person singular, imperative of MUTO, I change)

-it= ID (accusative neuter of the pronoun  IS)

-if you can't =NISI (literally, "if not")  POTES (2nd.person singular, present indicative of POSSUM, I can)

-change = MUTARE (infinitive of MUTO)

-it =ID (see above)

-change =MUTA (see above)

-the way you think =TUAM NOTIONEM (literally, “your perception”)

-about it =ILLIUS (genitive singular of ILLE= that) REI (genitive singular of RES, “thing”) . Note that ILLIUS REI literally means  “of that thing”, i.e. "about it".

As you can see, Latin word order is 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.