Maiora pluraque in vita facienda sunt quam vivere

[Chamaeleo]

Re: Help please

In English, the difference between adjectives and nouns is not entirely clear-cut, as examples such as ‘the poor’ show. In Latin, the distinction is even less clear-cut, as examples such as

Does it mean that there is no difference?

Istud nōn seqvitur.

‘bonī est rem pūblicam cōnservāre’

I don't think that you understand. bonum, -ī.= noun.

I don’t think you understand the sentence. It is an ellipsis of ‘bonī [virī/hominis] est rem pūblicam cōnservāre’ — ‘it is characteristic of a good man to protect the Commonwealth’. (You’ll probably say that’s a bad translation because there is no word for ‘characteristic’ in the Latin. :roll

The omission of the noun automatically makes the adjective act as a noun. See how fluid these categories are?

Any person with a little Latin knowledge won't be contented with your translation.

There is more to life than just being alive’

Maiora pluraque in vita facienda sunt quam vivere

Firstly, sentence doesn't start with 'There'.[...]

If you try to follow the discussion, you will see that Dast1g is trying to find a Latin translation for the phrase ‘There is more to life than just being alive’. I recognised his ‘Majōra plūraqve in vītā facienda sunt qvam vīvere’ as an attempt at an idiomatic rendering of this. I never offered my own translation, but instead merely connected the dots, mentioning that this was ‘essentially’ what the sentiment was.

Remember that this is not a beginners’ Latin class, where the teacher’s translation requests are designed to test knowledge of simple one-to-one correspondences. Instead, we are trying to find a Latin sentence that conveys the right idea elegantly.

Indeed, even if we were doing simple correspondences between English and Latin structures, it would be foolish to complain about a lack of ‘there’, because the standard way to translate ‘there is/are...’ into Latin is ‘est/sunt...’.

 

[Marcus88]

Re: Help please

I don’t think you understand the sentence. It is an ellipsis of ‘bonī [virī/hominis] est rem pūblicam cōnservāre’ — ‘it is characteristic of a good man to protect the Commonwealth’. (You’ll probably say that’s a bad translation because there is no word for ‘characteristic’ in the Latin. :roll

You do know 'a good man' seems as a noun, and bonī is genitive noun as I said. 'characteristic' can be replaced with anything like 'trait' or 'behavior' to give emphasis. This doesn't occur only in Latin, but in many translations of older text from ancient languages. It is often given in a parenthesis. Nonetheless, all the Latin words are translated into English.

Remember that this is not a beginners’ Latin class, where the teacher’s translation requests are designed to test knowledge of simple one-to-one correspondences. Instead, we are trying to find a Latin sentence that conveys the right idea elegantly.

agreed!

Indeed, even if we were doing simple correspondences between English and Latin structures, it would be foolish to complain about a lack of ‘there’, because the standard way to translate ‘there is/are...’ into Latin is ‘est/sunt...’.

est or sunt is often placed at the beginning as you know. Latin is a flexible language which order of the word can be changed to serve the aim of giving emphasis to the sentence. I personally witness while reading a text that an accusative such as in vīllā est mēnsa. at the beginning of a sentence. However, words cannot be changed with any random order without a regard of the meaning.
I do believe my translation;

The greater and the many are something that must be done in life than living.

is one of the most suitable translation for that Latin sentence. Any one may add some words to give emphasis such as 'than (just) living.' I think it gives all English equivalent of Latin words.

 

[Dast1g]

Re: Help please

So after all this is the first translation right?

 

[Chamaeleo]

Re: Help please

It means, ‘there are more and greater things to do in life than live’.

 

[Dast1g]

Re: Help please

It means, ‘there are more and greater things to do in life than live’.

So it's the closet literal translation I will get?

 

[Dast1g]

Re: Help please

If you want it any closer, look up each word in a dictionary.

Thanks for all the help u have no idea how much this means to me

 

[cinefactus]

Re: Help please

Come on fellas. Lets keep the tone of this forum pleasant shall we?

The Latin has been thoroughly discussed. Perhaps we should finish with this topic.

 

[Cato]

Re: Help please

I personally witness while reading a text that an accusative such as in vīllā est mēnsa. at the beginning of a sentence.

?

Marcus88, I get the sense from your posts that you are not a native English speaker. I don't make this observation to insult you, but to (perhaps) get at the root of the issue, which IMO is simple bad communication.

I think Bitmap is confused because there is no word in the accusative case or acting as a direct object in the sentence in vīllā est mēnsa. Perhaps you mean something else when you use the word "accusative"?

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