Latin Lesson #228: More sayings with vis

The focus for today's lesson is more practice with the verb vis, "you want," the 2nd-person form of the irregular verb vult. Last time, you saw how vis can take a direct object — Si vis pacem, para bellum and Si vis pacem, cole iustitiam — or it can take a complementary infinitive. All the sayings for today feature vis plus a complementary infinitive. You will also see a lot of infinitives in today's sayings too.

To get started, here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before — and you already know all of today's words except for one!

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Da, si vis accipere.
Give, if you-want to-receive.
da, si vis ac-CI-pere.

You know all the words in this saying.

The word accipere is the infinitive form of the verb accipit.

The word da is the imperative form of the verb dat.


2. Aude aliquid, si vis aliquid esse.
Dare something, if you-want to-be something.
aude A-liquid, si vis A-liquid esse.

You know all the words in this saying too!

The word esse is the infinitive form of the verb est.

The word aude is the imperative form of the verb audet.


3. Audire vis bene? Abstine male dicere.
Do-you-want to-hear (others speak) well (of you)? Avoid speaking badly (of others).
au-DI-re vis bene? AB-stine male DI-cere.

The word abstine, "avoid, refrain from," is the imperative form of the verb abstinet, which is the root of English "abstain." You haven't seen this word before, but you have seen the root verb: tenet. It also takes a complementary infinitive: dicere, which is the infinitive form of the verb dicit.

The word audire is the infinitive form of the verb audit.

The adverbs are the key to this saying: bene and male. As you can see from the translation, I couldn't find an elegant way to do that in English, so I had to add a few more words to the translation. But the Latin is very elegant, letting the adverbs do all the work!

4. Audi, vide, tace, si vis vivere in pace.
Listen, look, be-silent, if you-want to-live in peace.
audi, vide, tace, si vis VI-vere in pace.

These words should all be familiar, and the rhyme tace-pace lets you know that this is medieval Latin saying. The word pace is the ablative form of the noun pax, with the preposition in. 

The word vivere is the infinitive form of the verb vivit. 

You also get several imperatives in this saying: audi is the imperative of audit; vide is the imperative of videt; tace is the imperative of tacet.

5. Fac bene dum vivis, post mortem vivere si vis.
Do good while you-live, if you-want to-live after death.
fac bene dum vivis, post mortem VI-vere si vis.

Even though this is a long saying, you know all the words here too! This is also a rhyming medieval Latin saying: vivis-si vis.

The word fac is the imperative form of the verb facit.

The word mortem is the accusative form of the noun mors, with the preposition post. (Most prepositions take the ablative case, but post is one of those prepositions that take the accusative.)


Here's a recap:

• Da, si vis accipere.
• Aude aliquid, si vis aliquid esse.
• Audire vis bene? Abstine male dicere.
• Audi, vide, tace, si vis vivere in pace.
• Fac bene dum vivis, post mortem vivere si vis.

And here is today's audio:



Plus the LOLCats!

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