Expert: Maria - 2/4/2012

Question
hi maria, i am wanting to know the translation of 'angels watch over me' into latin, to have a decal made up to put above my bed. i have had alot of bereavement in the last 2yrs, and feel lucky that i have soo many special people looking out for me. i have been trying to work it out for myself, but there are lots of different ways of doing it.

please, please help me.

louise xxx

Answer
Hi Louise,

“Pro me vigilant angeli” or “Me angeli custodiunt” are two correct translations for “Angels watch over me”, just to mean that many special people are looking out for you like angels.

Since both the above Latin sentences are correct, you can choose the one you like better.

All the best,
Maria
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Note that:

-Angels = ANGELI (subject in the nominative plural of ANGELUS, 2nd.declension)

-watch = VIGILANT (3rd.person plural, present indicative of VIGILO)or  CUSTODIUNT (3rd.person plural, present indicative of CUSTODIO)

-over  me = PRO  ME (depending on  the verb  VIGILANT)  or simply  ME  (depending on the verb  CUSTODIUNT).

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 endings of each term, not by the order of the words.