some super helpful tips to translate

1. Seriously, do it this way.
HOW TO TRANSLATE LATIN

2. So, If you’re going to translate Latin, there are a
few things you have to know first:
1. You have to be able to translate different cases of
nouns.
2. You have to know how to translate different verb
tenses, and the person and number of verbs.
3. You have to know English word order.

3. Let’s talk about word order in both English and Latin
first.
Latin, contrary to common belief, does have a word order.
• The subject is usually first.
• Any adjectives that modify nouns are usually right
behind the noun.
• If the sentence has a genitive, it will be after the noun
it goes with
• The direct object is usually right in front of the verb.
• The verb is usually at the end of the sentence.
• Prepositional phrases go wherever.

4. So, for Latin word order, something like this happens:
filia matris crudelis multas canes in via invenit.
Filia is the subject of the sentence. You would know this, because it is first, and it
has a nominative ending. It COULD be anywhere, but as long as it has a
nominative ending, it is the subject.
Matris crudelis is the genitive (that is right after the subject, because that’s what it
goes with)
Multas canes is the direct object (after the subject). You would know that it is the
direct object because it has an accusative ending. Even if it was somewhere else,
you would still know it was the direct object, because it is in the accusative case.
In via is a prepositional phrase
Invenit is the verb at the end of the sentence. Verbs have an extremely limited
number of endings. You should be able to recognize the ones that they have.

5. Ok, now for English word order: It’s really a lot simpler.
• The subject is always first
• Then the verb
• Then the direct object
• Prepositional phrases and adverbs can go ANYWHERE they
make sense.
For example, Look at these English sentences below:
1. The king’s wife found many old chairs in the attic.
2. In the attic the king’s wife found many old chairs.
3. Many people like to eat breakfast in the mornings.
4. In the mornings many people like to eat breakfast.
5. Many people, in the mornings, like to eat breakfast.

6. Let’s start with nouns. Think of nouns in a sentence like puzzle
pieces. The way a noun is translated in different cases is like a piece
of a puzzle that completes a sentence.
Let’s look at a noun, and how to translate different cases:
Singular Plural
Nominative puella the/a girl puellae the girls
Genitive puellae of the girl puellarum of the girls
Dative puellaeto/for the girl puellis to/for the girls
Accusative puellam the/a girl puellas the girls
Ablative puella by/with/from the girl puellis by/with/from the
girls
Now above, where you see options like “the” or “a” , you choose
whichever one makes the most sense.
You should have your noun charts with you whenever you translate.

7. So let’s talk about how to approach a Latin sentence. There are certain
steps to take. If you do this, you may not always be perfect, but you
will be a LOT better than you are now.
Step I: Look at the first word in the sentence. Can it be nominative?
If yes, it’s your subject.
Step II: Find your verb. Determine person, number, tense and voice.
Step III: Look for prepositional phrases
Step IV: Determine the case, and the grammatical role of the other
nouns in the sentence.
Step V: Account for any other words that you have not accounted for.
Step VI: Translate

8. Things to remember:
1. It is possible that you have a sentence that has a subordinate clause
set off by commas. Sometimes there will be a verb in that
subordinate clause. You need to repeat the steps for the subordinate
clause.
2. If you do not look at the endings of words, you will never get a
sentence right.
3. If a word has more than one meaning, choose the one that makes the
most sense in the sentence. Don’t be lazy, try them both.
4. Yes, I know it’s time consuming. But you won’t get any better until
you use this method all the time.

9. So, let’s do a sentence together:
Mater Caesaris filio multam panem in taberna in foro emit.
Step 1: Look at the first word. Is it nominative?
Mater IS nominative, so it’s your SUBJECT. Now, is it singular or plural? It’s
singular. What does it mean? It means “mother”. Now write it down.
Step 2: Find your verb at the end. It’s emit. What tense is it? If you looked it up,
you would find that it is perfect tense, which happens in the past. So write it down
now next to “mother”
What you should have now is “mother bought”
Step 3: Are there any prepositional phrases? Find them by looking for prepositions.
If you don’t remember what prepositions are, check out Chapter 3. You have TWO
of them here: “in taberna” and “in foro”
Write down their meanings: “in a shop” “in the forum”

10. So what you have now is “mother bought in a shop in the forum”
That doesn’t make a whole heck of a lot of sense. But we’re not done! We have to see
what else we have in the sentence.
Clearly, mother bought SOMETHING. And that something will be accusative.
Normally, the accusative direct object is directly in front of the verb.
Let’s look at the whole sentence again:
Mater Caesaris filio in taberna in foro multum panem emit.
Step 4: Find the direct object. Look at the two words in front of the verb—multum
panem—are they accusative? Check your noun chart. You will find that they ARE
accusative. Now translate them. “much bread”
Put it in the sentence: Mother bought much bread in a shop in the forum.
Now, we’re getting somewhere!
See the next slide for Step 5:

11. Step 5: What else is left?
Ok so now we have Caesaris and filio left, right?
You need to look at what cases they are. That’s going to tell you what they are doing in
the sentence.
Caesaris is right AFTER mater. And it’s Genitive. That means possession. The
person doing the possessing is in the genitive, so it’s CAESAR’S mother.
Now we have Caesar’s mother bought much bread in a shop in the forum.
Last step: What case is filio? Well, if you look it up, you will see it can be Dative or
Ablative. A dative can be translated with “to” or “for” in front of it, so try that first.
Let’s see: Caesar’s mother bought much bread in a shop in the forum for her son.
Does that make sense? I think it does. Filio is dative and therefore the indirect
object.

12. So, if you read back over the last few slides where we went through a
whole sentence step by step, you will see that NOT ONCE did I think
about the vocabulary meaning of the verb until I knew exactly what
case it was or what the grammar was.
See, the meanings of the words, ARE TOTALLY NOT IMPORTANT
OR HELPFUL UNLESS YOU KNOW THE GRAMMAR FIRST.
You have to analyze EVERY SINGLE WORD TO DEATH if you want
a correct translation which you should.
If you translate this way you will become a MUCH better translator.
And even if you never get it perfect, it will still be a LOT better than
whatever you have been doing, which is flailing around.