Expert: Maria Date: 5/24/2008 Subject: a silly motto!
Question Hi Maria. Our grade 12 IB class would like to informally adopt the motto, "There ain't no flies on us." Would you be able to give us a Latin translation. I understand that the incorrect grammar probably presents a problem, but we just need something to put on our year end party certificates. Thanks.
Answer Hi Susan,
If you want a literal translation of such an idiomatic English phrase, here it is:
-“Nulla nobis potest insidere musca” (see below for grammatical analysis).
If on the contrary you want to express in Latin the real meaning of this idiomatic sentence, which means in fact that someone is intelligent and able to think quickly and then to move quickly, so that no fly can alight on him, you must say:
-“Et consilio et manu prompti sumus”( literally, “We are able to think and move quickly”).
I think however that you’ll choose the literal translation which sounds more appropriate to your purpose.
Hope this helps.
Have a nice day,
Maria
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GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS.
-There ain't = POTEST INSIDERE (literally, ‘can alight on’)
-no = NULLA (nominative feminine singular agreed wit MUSCA)
-flies = MUSCA (nominative singular in Latin)
-on us = NOBIS (dative of NOS. The verb INSIDERE takes the dative case).
As you can see, Latin word order is different from English.
