Expert: Maria - 8/3/2007

Question
I heard the phrase "Nos qui saltamus" a while ago and I understand it to mean "We are dancers." I would like to make sure that that is the correct past-tense of 'to be' in Latin and I would also like to have the phrase "I am a dancer" in Latin.

I heard my ballroom instructor use it one time and when I cross-referenced it with Google, I found some small differences in how people translated the tense of that first phrase.

Answer
Hello,

The Latin phrase "Nos qui saltamus" literally means “We who are dancing”, NOT “We are dancers”, which in Latin would be “Nos saltatores sumus” (see below for a grammatical analysis).

"Saltamus"(literally,'we dance') is NOT the past tense of 'to be' in Latin, but the present indicative, 1st.person plural, of the verb SALTO, which means "I dance".


As for the correct past tense of 'to be'(i.e. ESSE  in Latin), it is as follows:
-FUI (1st.person singular = I was);
-FUISTI (2nd.person singular= you were);
-FUIT (3rd.person singular, he, she, it was);
-FUIMUS (1st.person plural, we were);
-FUISTIS (2nd.person plural, you were) ;
-FUERUNT (3rd.person plural, they were).

Finally the translation of "I am a dancer" is  “Saltator sum”.
As you can see, Latin word order can be variable and is different from English.

Best,
Maria
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Note that in “Nos qui saltamus”( We who are dancing / We who dance):

-NOS (pronoun, 1st.person plural, nominative case) = we

-QUI (nominative masculine plural of the relative pronoun QUI, QUAE, QUOD) = who

-SALTAMUS (1st.person plural of the present indicative of the verb SALTO, 1st conjugation,  meaning ‘I dance’/ ‘I’m dancing’)= are dancing / dance

Moreover in “Nos saltatores sumus”:

-NOS (pronoun, 1st.person plural, nominative case) = we

-SALTATORES (nominative plural of SALTATOR, dancer)= dancers

-SUMUS (1st.person plural of the present indicative of the verb SUM, whose infinitive is ESSE, to be) = are

Finally in ““Saltator sum”("I am a dancer"):

-SALTATOR (nominative singular of a noun which belongs to the 3rd.declension) = a dancer

-SUM (1st.person singular of the present indicative of the verb SUM) = I am