# It tolls for you



## moirai924

The "it" refers to a bell = a big church bell that would be tolled to announce something in a village. I want the present tense. Not sure if Latin has an impersonal "you" form, but if it does, then that's the one I want (not a proper/formal "you"). 

It's important to get it right - I'm having it tattooed!

Thanks!!!


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## Le Pamplemousse

I would say: 

"Tibi canit." (not very descriptive because the same verb means 'to sing')
or 
"Campana (bell) tibi canit."

There is only one singular you in Latin.  If you wanted a plural, "vobis" would be the correct form.

Also, saying "Canit tibi" probably would be ok.


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## moirai924

Thanks for the response. To be clear, I don't really want the text to be very descriptive. I don't want the reference to be easily recognizable, but I do want it to be technically correct. The meaning I want translated would be more like the second sentence: "The church bell is big. It tolls for thee/you." That way we know what the second sentence means or describes because we have the context of the first sentence. But the tattoo won't make reference to the first sentence at all. This way, nobody will really know what it means unless I tell them.


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## Brioche

why not "_sonat_"

"Pro febre quartana raro sonat campana." 
"for a quartan ague rarely sounds the bell" 
(that is: a quartan ague rarely causes death)

so "campana sonat" is genuine Latin for "a bell tolls" in the sense of rings for a death, which is probably what is intended here.


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## moirai924

I do mean ring for death, but I also mean it rings for you/thee, not a general ringing without an object. I also didn't want the word "bell" to appear in the text because I don't want to give it all away upfront about what's doing the tolling.


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## ampurdan

That's the way I like the most: "Tibi sonat campana".

I doubted between sonat and resonat, but I think the second one is more used fore sounds spreading through spaces like forests and the like. I like the "tibi" in the first place, because I think is the part of speech that is emphasized and Latin uses this structure.


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