Expert: Maria - 4/5/2006

Question
A friend of mine who is based in Lausanne thought that I am "an expert" just because I had some 4 years of Latin in the high school. Unfortunately those days have long passed so it is not possible to satisfy his curiosity: to translate into Latin the following phrase
"When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"
...which he intends to use as a signature for his e-mails...

...could you, please?

Sincerely Yours,

Dorin-Lucian Marsan
(dlmarsan@gmail.com)

Answer
Hello,

glad to help you.

So the adage your friend intends to use as a signature for his e-mails can be translated into Latin as follows:

" Cum malleum tantum habes, omnia tibi videntur clavi ".

Greetings from Italy.
Maria
________________________________________________________ The translation cannot be literal. Anyway note that:

-When = CUM

-all you have is a hammer = MALLEUM TANTUM HABES (literally, you have=HABES; only= TANTUM; a hammer =CLAVI)

-everything = OMNIA

-looks like = TIBI VIDENTUR (literally,seem =VIDENTUR; to you =TIBI)

-a nail = CLAVI (In Latin we use the plural in this context)