# Earned my wings



## Melissa_Hewett

Hi,
Please could you translate:

Earned my wings

I have been told it is Mereo Meus Alis and Mereo Meus Pennae

Many Thanks


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## linguist786

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it would be "meus" since that's the ending for a singular noun..


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## Outsider

_Meus_ is the 1st. person singular possessive pronoun used when the possessed object is masculine plural. I'm not sure that _pennae_ is masculine, though. I would have guessed feminine.


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## Anne345

mereo meas alas 
or
mereo meas pennas 
= I earn my wings


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## Melissa_Hewett

ok i have had a professional translator look at this and thought you woul dbe interested to know that:

Meritus Meus Pennae- Earned my wings

Mereo Mean Pennas- I merit my wings

Thanks for all your help though please still discuss if you are in disagreement with this as i am very curious.


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## Outsider

Melissa_Hewett said:
			
		

> Meritus Meus Pennae- Earned my wings


I think that means something like "Wings [earned] through my own merit". Not that it makes much difference.



			
				Melissa_Hewett said:
			
		

> Mereo Mean Pennas- I merit my wings


Check that "mean". Should it be "meae"?


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## Anne345

Melissa_Hewett said:
			
		

> ok i have had a professional translator look at this and thought you woul dbe interested to know that:
> 
> Meritus Meus Pennae- Earned my wings
> 
> Mereo Mean Pennas- I merit my wings
> 
> Thanks for all your help though please still discuss if you are in disagreement with this as i am very curious.


 
He is not a latin translator ! 

meritus = earned (for a man) OK 
mereo : I earn : OK 
meus : masculine, singular for subject not for object  ! 
pennae : feminine, plural for subject, not for object !

so 
meritus meas pennas 
or 
meritus meas alas
= earned my wings


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## se16teddy

By 'earned my wings', do you mean 'I have earned my wings'? If so, surely nothing with 'meritus' is appropriate? Surely you will need some kind of active voice past tense verb, or else a past participle agreeing with 'wings'?

Also, by 'I have earned my wings', do you mean 'I have qualified as a pilot'?  I suppose that this is a purely modern senes.  I doubt very much whether the same allusion exists in Latin - the ancient Romans were not well known as pilots.


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## modus.irrealis

I was confused by the translator's versions too so I went and checked the word out at the Perseus dictionary here.

It seems there's both an active verb _mereo_ and a deponent verb _mereor_, so that explains the translators first sentence, but I still think it should be, using _ala_ which has to be in the accusative according to the above link,

Alas meas meritus sum.

I don't know if you can drop the _sum_ in these types of sentences. Anne345, I notice that you did and I was wondering if this was common?

And I agree that "mean" is wrong since it's not even a Latin word -- nothing comes up when I put it into http://catholic.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/words.exe?]this dictionarythis dictionary. So I have

Alas meas mereo.

But my only new contribution is the word order. I thought verb comes at the end and possessive pronouns comes after the noun they modify unless you want to place emphasis on them. I read

Mereo meas alas.

as

I _earn_ _my_ wings.

Is that right?


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## se16teddy

Thanks Modus.Irrealis, I understand 'meritus' better now. It hadn't occurred to me that deponent verbs can be used transitively. 
http://www.mythfolklore.net/medieval_latin/grammar/deponent.htm

I still fear, though, that 'alas / pennas meas meritus' would not be well understood by people who don't know the English (or otherwise restricted) expression 'earn one's wings' = qualify as a pilot.


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## kamome

alas meas merui.


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