Tuesday, January 24, 2012

What is the correct Latin translation for "believe in yourself."?

I'm looking at getting a tattoo in latin which says "believe in yourself." Through using Latin translators online, I understand that there are alternate forms of the phrase. I am wondering which forms are most appropriate. A couple examples are as follows, they all technically mean the same thing, I guess.



Puto in Vestri,

Confido in Vestrum,

Autumo in Vestra



Any help would be awesome, I would like my tattoo too make sense!What is the correct Latin translation for "believe in yourself."?
In Classical Latin prose, the best options would be as follows. There are different shades of meaning but both of the suggested verbs can certainly be translated as "believe in".



Tibi confide ~ have confidence in yourself

Tibi crede ~ trust your own convictions



In situations where you are not addressing a particular person (as in proverbs or maxims) the verbs can take a special form like this..



Tibi confidas

Tibi credasWhat is the correct Latin translation for "believe in yourself."?
"Confido" comes from the infinitive "confidere", which means "to have complete trust". "Puto" comes from the infinitive "putare" which generally means "to cleanse/clear". "Autumo" comes from the infinitive "autumare" which literally means "to say/assert". From these three choices, I would say "Confido" fits what you are trying to say most accurately. (You could also use "credere", as it also means "to believe". However, this usually refers to religious/spiritual beliefs.)

HOWEVER, before you go on, you should know that if you want to say "believe in yourself" (i.e. a command), you need to make it an imperative statement. To do this you would simply say "confida te" or "confida in te", which mean "believe yourself" or "believe in yourself", respectively. The same goes for credere. "Credere" would become "crede te" or "crede in te". (FYI: The "te" comes into play because it is a pronoun. You need this pronoun to say "yourself". "Vestri", "vestrum", and "vestra" are similar to "te" but they are plural. "Confida in Vestrum" would mean "belive in yourselves", which you're not trying to say here.)

I'm unsure about the use of the preposition "in", as it may or may not have different connotations in Latin. In Latin it might be more appropriate to say "belive yourself" rather than "believe in yourself".

I hope this helps, sorry if I overcomplicated it. But it's not like you can just erase this if it's not correct - it's a tattoo after all. I'll defer to anyone who is an actual Latin scholar, of course. I'm just a student, but I hope I got it right and it helps.

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