Latin Help

Thanks again . . .

Latin Translation
I am new to this forum, so if I make mistakes, just kick me!

I am impressed by the posts that I have read so far, and now I need a little help.
Can anyone translate the following phrase for me

Amoto quaeramus seria ludo

Thanks a bunch

Ave, Rockmelon,

1. amoto < amoveo, 'to take away, remove'
(= perfect participle passive, ablative masculine singular)

2. ludo < ludus m., 'play, game, pastime, joke'
(= ablative singular)

3. quaeramus < quaero, 'seek'
(present subjunctive active, 1st plural)

4. seria < serius, 'serious, grave'
(neuter plural)

amoto+ludo = ablative absolute ('with play taken away')

seria = 'serious things'

quaeramus = 'let us seek'

Anglice:
'With play taken away, let us seek serious things'

=>

'Let us put aside frivolity and turn to serious matters.'
'Enough of the funny stuff. Now let's talk about something serious.'
'Joking aside, let's turn to serious matters.'

P.

(1) Ha (!) Exultate, jubilate . . . what fun this kind of stuff can be (!)

(2) You obviously enjoy this . . . as much as I do.

(3) It makes me wonder about something, though.

(4) Do you happen to also know Classical Greek? (Probably would if you took a Classics Degree at university).

(5) The reason I ask . . . is I wonder whether people have as much fun with that.

(6) What's the inside deal on this, please -- are Latin-ists known, for example, to have a better sense of humor than those whose primary emphasis is Greek?

(7) Anything you'd care to share about it would be enlightening (I've only got high school Latin experience) . . .

Thanks . . .

A lot of latinists here on A2K have a wonderful sense of humor (our)!

If I may clarify some things about the verb tenses:

Every verb has a series of four principal parts.

1) The first person singular present. (eg. I walk/I am walking - ambulo)
2) The present infinitive (eg. to walk - ambulare)
3) The first person singular perfect (eg. I walked/I have walked - ambulavi)
4) The supine, which doesn't really translate into English well, but it's generally the root + tum or occasionally the root + sum (eg. ambulatum)

The dictionary entry would be: ambulo, ambulare, ambulavi, ambulatum

You can make all the verb forms from these four parts.

Latin verbs have time, person, number, and aspect. 'Aspect' refers to the completedness of the action. Compare:

I am walking. (Present [Imperfect])
I have walked. ([Present] Perfect) (this tense is also used to mean the English simple past - I walked)

I will be walking. (Future [Imperfect])
I will have walked. (Future Perfect)

I was walking. ([Past] Imperfect)
I had walked. (Plu[more]perfect)

The first of the pairs are imperfect and the second are perfect. (The term 'perfect' comes from the Latin verb perficio, perficere, perfeci, perfectum - to complete.)

All the imperfect conjugations can be formed from the first and second principal parts of the verb, which generally tell you what conjugation system it belongs to.

All the perfect conjugations of the verb can be formed from the perfect stem which is found in the third principal part.

The 'av' in Lucifer's Perfect and Pluperfect examples is actually part of the perfect stem. The perfect stem is different for different conjugations. He didn't give the Future Perfect, so I'll give those endings here:

root + perfect stem +....
P1: -ero, -erimus
P2: -eris, -eritis
P3: -erit, -erint

Thus
ambulavero, ambulaverimus
ambulaveris, ambulaveritis
ambulaverit, ambulaverint

I should add that the conjugation for "to give" that Lucifer gave isn't correct because the principal parts are actually irregular (do, dare, dedi, datum), so all of the perfect forms begin with ded- and not dav-.

The regular first conjugation principal parts are the root plus: -o, -are, -avi, -atum, and if a verb is regular, you should expect those to be its parts. The verbs that Lucifer gave at the end are all regular (I believe) except for stare, which has the parts sto, stare, steti, statum.

And Lucifer didn't do it, so here is a conjugation of "to be" (sum, esse, fui, (no supine)) for all the tenses so far mentioned (notice the similarities to the future perfect and pluprefect endings):

Present:
P1: sum, sumus
P2: es, estis
P3: est, sunt

Future:
P1: ero, erimus
P2: eris, eritis
P3: erit, erunt

Imperfect:
P1: eram, eramus
P2: eras, eratis
P3: erat, erant

The Perfect stem is fu-, and otherwise it conjugates the same way as other perfects. (fui, fuisti, etc)

The only participle usually used with it is the future active, and that is futurus (about to be).

(I can add some conjugations for other heavily irregular verbs too, if you want.)

On Participles:

There are actually 5 participles that I know about, I think.

Present Active - A saw B walking. ('walking' modifies B)
In the first conjugation, this is formed the way that Lucifer described and declines exactly like a third-declension noun except that as an adjective it can take both neuter and masculine/feminine forms.

M/F
Nom: ambulans, ambulantes
Gen: ambulantis, ambulantum
Dat: ambulanti, ambulantibus
Acc: ambulantem, ambulantes
Abl: ambulante, ambulantibus

The neuter forms are the same, except that the nominative and accusantive plurals would be ambulanta, and the accusative singular is the same as the nominative singular.

Perfect Passive - "The story was told by..."
There are lots of uses for this participle, but passive construction is the most commonly used sense in English. It's formed from the supine (fourth principal part) and declines like a first/second declension adjective.

(with narro, narrare, narravi, narratum - to tell)
M, F, N - Singular
Nom: narratus, narrata, narratum
Gen: narrati, narratae, narrati
Dat: narrato, narratae, narrato
Acc: narratum, narratam, narratum
Abl: narrato, narrata, narrato

M, F, N - Plural
Nom: narrati, narratae, narrata
Gen: narratorum, narratarum, narratorum
Dat: narratis (all genders)
Acc: narratos, narratas, narrata
Abl: narratis (all genders)

Future Active - "the ship was about to depart"
"about to (do something)" is a participle in Latin. Weird, I know. It's also formed from the supine (minus the -um) but instead of adding -us, you add -urus. Otherwise, it declines the same way as the Perfect Passive above.

narraturus (etc) - about to tell
abulaturus (etc) - about to walk
etc

There are two more, as I mentioned, but they're a pain in butt. First there's the Perfect Active, which is a whole other can of worms involving deponent verbs, and then there is the Future Passive, which is hardly ever used anyway.

Ha! I dug up a list of principal parts of first conjugation verbs from last semester. Most of these are completely regular (thank God).

aedifico, aedificare, aedificavi, aedificatum - to build
ambulo, ambulare, ambulavi, ambulatum - to walk
amo, amare, amavi, amatum - to love
ceno, cenare, cenavi, cenatum - to dine
clamo, clamare, clamavi, clamatum - to shout
curo, curare, curavi, curatum - to care (for)
spero, sperare, speravi, speratum - to hope (for)
despero, desperare, desperavi, desperatum - to despair (for)
erro, errare, erravi, erratum - to wander (or to err)
evigilo, evigilare, evigilavi, evigilatum - to awaken
excito, excitare, excitavi, excitatum - to awaken (someone else)
festino, festinare, festinavi, festinatum - to hurry
habito, habitare, habitavi, habitatum - to dwell
impero, imperare, imperavi, imperatum - to order
intro, intrare, intravi, intratum - to enter
laboro, laborare, laboravi, laboratum - to work
laudo, laudare, laudavi, laudatum - to praise
libero, liberare, liberavi, liberatum - to free
narro, narrare, narravi, narratum - to tell
navigo, navigare, navigavi, navigatum - to sail
oppugno, oppugnare, oppugnavi, oppugnatum - to attack
oro, orare, oravi, oratum - to pray (or to beg)
paro, parare, paravi, paratum - to prepare
porto, portare, portavi, portatum* - to carry
pugno, pugnare, pugnavi, pugnatum - to fight
rogo, rogare, rogavi, rogatum - to ask
saluto, salutare, salutavi, salutatum - to salute
servo, servare, servavi, servatum - to save
specto, spectare, spectavi, spectatum - to watch
exspecto, exspectare, exspectavi, exspectatum - to wait (for)
tempto, temptare, temptavi, temptatum - to try
voco, vocare, vocavi, vocatum - to call (to)
convoco, convocare, convocavi, convocatum - to call together

Some irregulars:
iuvo, iuvare, iuvi, iutum - to help
lavo, lavare, lavi, lautum* - to wash
do, dare, dedi, datum - to give
sto, stare, steti, statum - to stand


* I think

Hello!
I would like to translate the following sentence to correct latin.
I've been having real problems with this one because of the verb form.
the sentence is "never give up"

I'm very keen on using the correct verb for "give up" and NOT "surrender"

The reason I've been have trouble is because I'm not sure of wich verb I should use, or to use denying imperative form och gerundivum or something else!

the suggestions I've gotten so far are:
noli te dedere
spes/conatus numquam abicienda/i
nunquam redono

I might add that the phrase is referring to myself, as in "life's hard but (you shall) never give up"


(please excuse any english language barriers, for english is not my native tounge Smile

Thank you.

I assume you mean "give up" in the sense of "give up hope". If so, I
would use the verb desperare. For "never", I would use minime because
it carries the sense of a very strong negative.

So...
Minime despera.

I'd also like to hear what suggestions our other regular contributers make.

give up "hope" is close, but give up "the struggle" is more accurate.
What about the correct form for the verb, and the sugested person? (2nd sing)

In that case, I'd use desistere.

So...

Minime desiste.

Both despera and desiste are the imperative singular.

okay.
Thanks alot! big help.

by the way, I've been given another suggestion, could you coment on it?
"spes nunquam abicienda" never give up hope
and
"certamen numquam abiciendum" / "pugna nunquam abicienda"
never give up the struggle

"spes nunquam abicienda"
Hope [is] never to be given up.

"certamen numquam abiciendum" / "pugna nunquam abicienda"
The struggle / fight [is] never to be given up.

Either is fine depending on whether "hope" or "struggle" is what you intend. The gerund format makes it less a command than a rule or principle.

that is exactly what I want.
but I will probably use dimicatio instead of certamen. (would that change the form on abiciendum?)
is it possible to simply say "nunquam abiciendum"?
"(...)never to be given up"

Dimicatio (literally "battle") is good.

Yes, you can say nunquam abiciendum.

okay
I feel I finally got my correct sentence
I will go for either Dimicatio nunquam abiciendum.
or simply nunquam abiciendum.
Thank you so much for your incredible help
I wish you a happy life

If you use dimicatio, you need to use abicienda (feminine);
otherwise use abiciendum (neuter).

check!

I was going to introduce "esse" later, but I guess it's better that people know it now.