Why are different cases of the personal pronoun use in the two parts of the sentence "si enim amici me in caelo videbunt, omnes tandem mihi credent" and what do they mean?

There are two pronouns in this sentence, 'me' and 'mihi', which both translate to 'me' in English. me is accusative, while mihi is dative. This is because of the roles they play the different parts of the sentence. me is the object of the verb videbunt, and this verb takes its object in the accusative case. mihi is the object of credent, one of the few verbs in the GCSE lists which takes a dative as its object. Both are 1st person (I/me) pronouns, meaning that they refer to the speaker.
This is a conditional sentence, where the protasis (the 'if-clause') comes first (si enim amici me in caelo videbunt), followed by the resulting apodasis (the 'then-clause') afterwards (omnes tandem mihi credent). You could translate it as 'if, then, my friends saw me in the sky, they would all at last believe me'. Here you can see how the two different pronoun forms fit into the English translation. I hope that helps! :)

Answered by Jonathan W. Latin tutor

3242 Views

See similar Latin GCSE tutors

Related Latin GCSE answers

All answers ▸

What's a good method to translate a sentence from Latin into English?


Servi subito senserunt se in maximo periculo esse


How are the comparative and superlative forms of an adjective formed?


How to translate complex Latin sentences?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact usWhatsapp logoMessage us on Whatsapptelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo
Cookie Preferences