Is Habent Too Literal

[BrianBerbati]

Good evening, everyone. I was tasked with creating five sentences about, if I was a dictator, what my subjects would have to follow. I'm wondering about my use of habent in these sentences. I know it literally means to have something, yet I thought I could use to convey my thought into Latin. Also, I want to make sure I used my nominative and accusative noun cases correctly as I've struggled with that a lot. Thanks for the assistance.

Clepens inlicitus est. Poena de homicidium letum est. Cives habent legem honorare. Cives habent pendere tributa sub poena de defunctione. Abnuens pendere tributum detestabilis est.

Stealing is illegal. The penalty of murder is death. Citizens have to respect the law. Citizens have to pay taxes under penalty of execution. Refusing to pay a debt is detestable.

Sincerely,

Brian

 

[Bitmap]

To have to is debere in Latin, but there are a lot more mistakes in those sentences. Are you just taking stuff out of a dictionary and putting it together?

 

[Pacifica]

While I'm sure Brian made extensive use of a dictionary, as would be expected at this stage, his attempt also shows that he did give some thought to grammar, even if he got some things wrong in the end.

Brian, your use of present participles is wrong. English words that end in -ing can be used both to describe something or someone as doing the action denoted in the participle, as in "He was caught stealing", and to denote the action itself as in "stealing is illegal". These however are two rather different ideas and they are expressed differently in Latin. The former is expressed with the participle, the latter with the infinitive (at least in this particular sentence; in some other contexts another form is used which you probably haven't learned yet). Note that an infinitive is always of neuter gender.

De takes the ablative, so de homicidium is ungrammatical. However, as in "freedom of religion" on your other thread, you'd better use a genitive here, and also in "penalty of execution".

The idea of "penalty of execution" would usually be conveyed by poena capitis, literally "penalty of head", i.e. a penalty where you'll lose your head. Things like poena mortis or poena necis should be acceptable too, although slightly less classical.

You've got the wrong word for "debt" (you've used the same as for "tax").

 

[BrianBerbati]

Brian, your use of present participles is wrong. English words that end in -ing can be used both to describe something or someone as doing the action denoted in the participle, as in "He was caught stealing", and to denote the action itself as in "stealing is illegal". These however are two rather different ideas and they are expressed differently in Latin. The former is expressed with the participle, the latter with the infinitive (at least in this particular sentence; in some other contexts another form is used which you probably haven't learned yet). Note that an infinitive is always of neuter gender.

Although I haven't learned participles yet, I tried to incorporate them. However, it appears my usage was quite incorrect. I changed my sentences to use an infinitive rather than my attempt at a participle.

De takes the ablative, so de homicidium is ungrammatical. However, as in "freedom of religion" on your other thread, you'd better use a genitive here, and also in "penalty of execution".

Ah, I must have thought de took the accusative. I eliminated de and made those nouns genitive.

I apologize for having so many issues in my text, Sarah. I don't mean to waste your time. Thank you for alerting me to these errors, though, so I can improve and feel more comfortable translating.

Clepere inlicitus est. Poena capitis letum est. Cives debent legem honorare. Cives debent pendere tributa sub poena defunctionis. Abnuere pendere creditum est detestabilis.

To steal is illegal. The penalty of murder is death. Citizens have to respect the law. Citizens have to pay taxes under penalty of execution. To refuse to pay a debt is detestable.

 

[Pacifica]

Clepere inlicitus est.

Abnuere pendere creditum est detestabilis.

Mind what I said here:

Note that an infinitive is always of neuter gender.

Poena capitis letum est.

You don't need capitis there. What you've got is like saying "the death penalty is death". You only needed to change de homicidium to homicidii.

This is where you need capitis, instead of defunctionis:

poena defunctionis

Cives debent legem honorare.

Actually observare would be a better word to use here than honorare.

 

[Notascooby]

If you use the infinitive as a subject then it is of the neuter gender and any adjective which goes with it should reflect this. i.e discere linguam latinam difficile est

Edit: Pacifica posted while I was typing

 

[BrianBerbati]

Mind what I said here:

If you use the infinitive as a subject then it is of the neuter gender and any adjective which goes with it should reflect this.

Okay, I understand now. That's very helpful, I'm glad I know that now. Thanks for clarifying.

Revisions:

Clepere inlicitum est. Poena homocidii letum est. Cives debent legem observare. Cives debent pendere tributa sub poena capitis. Abnuere pendere creditum est detestabile.

To steal is illegal. The penalty of murder is death. Citizens have to respect the law. Citizens have to pay taxes under penalty of execution. To refuse to pay a debt is detestable.

 

[Pacifica]

Good.