Latin translations in The AnswerBank: Arts & Literature

There are books (easy ones) on Latin by Eugene Ehrlich, which help me to translate phrases. Go to the Alibris website (they have lots of 2nd-hand books @ good prices) and look for Ehrlich. I find him worthwhile, but of course you may not. As for web translations, I agree with you: they're not too good, and can be so bad that they're funny. Good luck.

Quizmonster

Posting a question in the Phrases & Sayings category right here on AnswerBank is probably your best bet. There are several people around here who will probably be able to help.
The translation sites are almost invariably hopeless and often - as suggested by Shnovitz above - hilariously wrong. The problem is that, unless you are reasonably knowledgeable about the language already, you probably won't know the answer offered is wrong. There must be multitudes of people wandering around with tattoos in Latin which are absurd!

Quizmonster

Good lord! Three uses of the word, 'probably' in eight lines and here I am offering language advice!

Clanad

You deffinitely need an extended road trip to France, Q...

atalanta

What exactly do you want ? I am a Latinist. But don't ask me for recommendations for tattoos.

chrissa1

Can't help myself....... amo amas amant, amamus amatis amant.
I don't think that's quite right though.

mike11111

No, the first amant should be amat.

FredPuli43

And 'dunno' is the vulgar Latin verb which classical Latin has as 'nescio'. One of the few Latin verbs used by Londoners:" Where is he?" "Dunno".

If the Latin is from some classical text, is a legal Latin phrase,or something from a church service, you may find it translated if you enter the whole of it on google.

boomster

Question Author

Thanks. I don't want the translation for anything that serious, definely not tatoos, yuk! I just want to be able to read some people's latin they use as signatures, also a few authors inside their books at the beginning, usually.

boomster

Question Author

Thanks. I don't want the translation for anything that serious, definely not tatoos, yuk! I just want to be able to read some people's latin they use as signatures, also a few authors inside their books at the beginning, usually.
Sorry, I sent this to someone else by mistake, jic you think me balmy - don't answer that. :)

boomster

Question Author

Thanks to all of you great guys for taking the time to reply. ;)

Quizmonster

Hi, C. Days in France - which I would just have been gearing up for in April - are no more. I think I may earlier have mentioned that the French ferry-company was considering abandoning trips to my home-town area; well, that has now happened. As a result, early morning departures with late evening same-day returns are over, necessitating an overnight stay. Nothing wrong with that, except that it is not the "booze-cruise" concept as WE knew it.
You may remember that, for most Brits, a booze-cruise involved hiring a van and bringing it back from France with its axles trailing along the roadway because of the weight of alcohol bottles in it. Not for us...we went aboard as foot-passengers, intent on getting as much good French food and drink inside us as we could manage before the ferry departed on the return trip!
Wonderful, but now a thing of the past.

Clanad

Ah, Q... solace be unto you for your loss... or, better yet (considering the topic of the thread)'Omnia mutantur nos et mutamur in illis'...

chrissa1

Thanks mike11111. Huic, huic, huis??? I'm going back to the 60's here.

mike11111

Hic haec hoc
Hunc hanc hoc
Huius huius huius
Huic huic huic
hoc hac hoc

chrissa1

Ha ha mike. That's it. What verb was it, if it was a verb?