It’s been about a decade since my last Latin class, and I have to admit that I was never any good at translating English to Latin, so help is very much appreciated.
What I am trying to do is this. Emperor Augustus was famously said to have uttered, “Vare, redde legiones!” after hearing of Quintilius Varus’s misguided expedition into the Teutoburg Forest, which led to three legions being wiped out. I want to use a similar sentence with reference to this famous sentence, but want it to read, “Give me back my country!” in the context. For the life of me, I’m not sure which would be correct - “Redde Patria” or “Redde Patriam”? (Or I might be completely off on both … like I said, English to Latin was never my strong point.)
Maybe we could just let California and everything on the East Coast from New York up split off, and people like ConfusedinVA and me could keep “flyover country”?
New member here, a Spanish teacher teaching Latin at a charter school (K-4 classes), who has little Latin background (besides teaching myself the first 8 chapters of Wheelock many years ago and learning some Latin words in a graduate Spanish course, and learning a smattering of Latin phrases from reading various sources, such as Eugene Ehrlich’s books). I have been tasked with a Latin/English composition project, a letter home to parents about learning Latin songs from the audio CD Carmina Popularia. When working with Wheelock earlier, I only did the Latin to English sentences, so have little experience in Latin composition.
Here’s my question: Can I say in Latin that something is “one of the best”, as we often do in English? The sentence to be translated in my draft letter reads, " One of the best aids to learning another language is music". My attempt at putting this into Latin is currently “Una auxiliōrum optimōrum discere linguam alteram mūsica est.” If it would not be correct to say “one of the best”, should I say “one of the better”? If so, I am guessing “Una auxiliorum meliorum” would be the phrase I want.
I am teaching myself more Latin as quickly as possible to do my job, including this project, which is interesting but frustrating at the same time, as I know so little yet of the basics of Latin. Thankfully, the students know less than I do!
Any members or guests who have a good knowledge of Latin composition and would be kind enough to help with my question, please reply!
Salve persequor et gratus nobis adventus tuus/welcome
I would say/Dicam “Unus optimus modus aliae linguae discendae est per musicam.” or/vel “Aliâ in linguâ discendâ, musica est unum optimum auxilium” [Disclaimer: not an expert/Caveas: peritus non sum]
I believe that unus with the superlative strengthens it, so unus optimus would mean “the very best” (see A&G 291.c). My understanding is that to translate “one of the”, you use ex (or de) + ablative, rather than the genitive, so that would be unum ex optimis auxiliis.
I forgot to add when introducing myself that I also have picked up a fair amount of vocabulary from reading the Latin Vulgate Bible. As I read the Bible regularly in English, and also in Spanish, I usually get the gist of most Vulgate texts even though I don’t know every word or recognize every form. Have discovered recently the Windows program Collatinus (http://www.collatinus.org/programmes.htm), which will let you import Latin text and then give you the meanings and grammar info (declension, conjugation info, etc.) via popup windows. Works with Vulgate text too. If you read French, then check it out. I do, so it works for me. Looks like it will be helpful.
