Expert: Maria - 2/18/2006

Question
Our surgical practice would like our motto, "caring for you like family", translated into Latin for our logo.  Will you help us?
Thanks, MJR

Answer
Hello,

Though  the phrase “Caring for you like family” cannot be translated literally into Latin, here's  the translation that comes closest to the meaning of this logo.

-“Te quasi meam curabo familiam” (literally, “I'll care for you as if you were my family”).

-“Te quasi nostram curabimus familiam” (literally, “we'll care for you as if you were our family”).

I hope this is the sense of “Caring for you like family”.

If on the contrary your logo means that “ I will  care for you (We will care for you) as if  I were (We were) your family”, i.e.with the same love of your family, here's the translation:

-“Te curabo velut si tua essem familia”.

-“Te curabimus velut si tua essemus familia”.

Hope all is clear enough.

Best regards,
Maria
_______________________________________
NOTA BENE
-Caring = CURABO (I'll care for) CURABIMUS (we'll care for)

-for you = TE

-like = QUASI

-family= NOSTRAM FAMILIAM(accusative case)
Note that in Latin we must use /MEAM(my)NOSTRAM(our).

Or:
-Caring = CURABO (I'll care for) CURABIMUS (we'll care for)

-for you = TE

-like= VELUT SI ESSEM ( subjunctive, 1st person singular); ESSEMUS (subjunctive, 1st person plural)

-family= TUA FAMILIA. In Latin we add the possessive ‘tua' in the nominative, agreed with ‘familia'.

Finally, as you can see, Latin word order differs from languages like English.