Expert: Maria - 3/4/2007

Question
Hi Maria,
Please can you translate;

"As good for you today as its always been"

In the context of eating food as in;

"Bread is as good for you today as its always been"

p.s Is the Latin for bread ovis?

Thankyou so much for your time
From Laura
x x x x


Answer
Hello,

First of all I have to tell you that in Latin the phrase “As good for you today as it’s always been” must have a subject like ‘bread’, ‘meat’, etc. or generally ‘food’,  in a context of eating food, as you say.

Therefore, if you want to say “Bread is as good for you today as it’s always been", here’s the translation:

“Bonus est hodie panis sicut fuit semper tibi”.

If on the contrary you want to translate “Food is as good for you today as it’s always been”, you must say:

“Bonus est hodie cibus sicut fuit semper tibi ”.

To conclude, you have to indicate WHAT is  as good for you today as it’s always been.

As for the Latin for ‘bread’, it is PANIS (nominative masculine), while OVIS means “sheep”.

Hope all is clear enough.
Best,
Maria
________________________________________
-Bread / Food = PANIS / CIBUS (nominative case)
-is = EST
-as good = BONUS (nominative masculine agreed with PANIS/CIBUS.
-for you =TIBI (dative)
-today = HODIE
-as =SICUT
-it’s ..been = FUIT
-always= SEMPER

As you can see, Latin word order differs from English.