Forums » RP Discussion » Need help translating phrases into Latin

I was trying to translate a phrase into Latin for my character's back story and well....let's just say all I managed to accomplish was get a very jumbled up piece of Latin. Does anyone have any suggestions for doing a half decent job?

Google Translate?

I like to use it one word at a time. For instance, if I wanted to translate the phrase "I like to have fun"

I would enter in "I," and then "like," and then "to," deleting each previous word.


Hope this helps!

There is this: Latin dictionary and there is also this that might help? wikipedia latin and if not yes, there is always google translate, which I find helpful in many situations! Hope this helps as well!

That's a good way of translating if your target language happens to have a similar grammar system to English - but most lot of the time, if you translated statements that way, you'd get something that was pretty nonsensical, alas. It's better to translate whole statements at a time, as context with other words in the sentence is often important, and verb tense and conjugation are usually dependent on other words present, as well. And that's not even getting into languages that involve case or gender, or with sentence structures other than subject-verb-object.

Katia, if you've not tracked down a Latin speaker or student yet, you may wish to try asking a community that's oriented towards the study of Latin, or towards linguistics studies. I find the Linguaphiles community on Livejournal is usually pretty knowledgeable on translation issues, myself.

I took a semester of Latin, what phrase do you need translated? Also don't use google translate for latin. Even a word at a time. Just don't.

I'm learning Latin as part of a Roman re-enactment group, feel free to PM me.

I took a few years of Latin, I might be able to help. PM what you need translated and I'll do my best.

Don't use Google Translate for Latin. Ever. Just.. no.

Thanks guys, I had originally changed the title to "Got my help, thanks", But Sanne changed it back for other people in case they also needed help. It appears that I forgot to mention that.

Thank you anyway again though!

For those of you who are familiar with latin but not fluent, I use this program in combination with my textbooks quite often. It seems to be a rather good database.

You can edit your post to mention you're good, but there appear to be a lot of people out here who know some Latin! Useful for members who are looking for help with it as well.

I'm a Latin teacher, so if you want anything translated feel free to PM me. I love Latin and would be more than happy to help anyone who needs it.