# You ought not to praise me.



## half monty

I thought that "You ought not to praise me." would be translated as "Me laudare non debes.", not "Me non laudare debes." However, my textbook prefers the latter. Does this even make any sense? Think about it: you are telling a person that he or she should not do something. Therefore, you have to put the verb "debes" in the negative: "non debes". Then you specify what it is that they should not do: "me laudare".

me laudare + non debes = me laudare non debes


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## wandle

half monty said:


> Me non laudare debes


That word order could be appropriate in a longer sentence, e.g.:

*Me non laudare debes, sed adjuvare*.
You ought to give me help, not praise.


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## behramkhan

wandle said:


> That word order could be appropriate in a longer sentence, e.g.:
> 
> *Me non laudare debes, sed adjuvare*.
> You ought to give me help, not praise.



I think that even in a normal sentence there would be nothing wrong with "Me non laudare debes."
It's just as good as "Me laudare non debes." and means exactly the same thing.

By the way, it should have been:

Me non laudare debes, sed juvare.

juvare means "to help".


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## wandle

behramkhan said:


> By the way, it should have been:
> Me non laudare debes, sed juvare.


*Adjuvare *is a good classical word which means specifically 'to help'.
*Juvare* on the other hand has a second meaning, 'to please'.

_*Me non laudare debes, sed juvare  *_could mean 'You ought to please me, not praise me'.
*Me non laudare debes, sed adjuvare *is unambiguous.

Latin word order is flexible, but is not without significance and the order in the original sentence is more appropriate for the context I have suggested.


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## behramkhan

Oh, okay.
But do you agree with everything else I wrote?


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## wandle

I do not agree that word order makes no difference. The primary meaning depends upon the interrelation of word forms and endings, but the word order also has significance.


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## Xavier61

It depends on the register you want to use. In Classical Latin literate people would write something like "*tibi laudandum non sum*".


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## half monty

Thank you, everyone!


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## wandle

Xavier61 said:


> literate people would write something like "*tibi laudandum non sum*".


The gerundive (verbal adjective) is a possible option, but here it would need to be in the nominative case: *laudandus*.


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## half monty

Oh, I see.


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## Xavier61

wandle said:


> The gerundive (verbal adjective) is a possible option, but here it would need to be in the nominative case: *laudandus*.


Yes, you are right. I wrote hastily.


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