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- "Nomen tibi est Marcus."
20 Comments
Tibi = "to you." The easiest for now is to remember the construction "Nomen mihi/tibi est."
The longer explanation is that tibi is in the dative case (to/for ...), and "dative + esse (to be)" is a special construction, denoting possession. Literally, the sentence would mean "The name / to you / is / Marcus.", or more fluently "Your name is Marcus.".
45
A / The / My / His / Your: name is Marcus • Copula Verb • Subject Complement:
Your hair is curly
Your cheeks are rosy
Your dog is friendly
Your enemy is devious
Your presence is unwelcome
As I understand it you use "Marce" when directly addressing Marcus, like in "Salve, Marce!". Whereas "Marcus" here is not "Marcus" as in you addressing him, but rather "Marcus" the name. The person in this sentence is "you" ("your").
If you're referring to Marcus in the 3rd person, though, I believe you say "Marcus", like in "Marcus in urbe est".
867
"Tibi est" = "you own", so the English translation would be something like "You have a name Marcus".
Souldn't the correct Latin version of "Your name is Marcus" be "Nomen tuum est Marcus"?
867
Yes, "esse" means to be. But "est" and "deest" with the dative is a commonly used idiom meaning "to have" and "to lack" , respectively. (I just noticed this is already explained in davidvdb's post.)
678
Nomen tuum est Marcus would be a litteral translation; apparently the Romans did not say like that.