Translation - Portuguese brazilian-Latin - Eu acredito no anjo

"I believe/trust an angel"?

CC: lilian canale

Actually, the original is incorrect gramatically. It should have been either: "Eu acredito em anjos" (I believe in angels) or "Eu acredito no/num anjo". (I believe in a/the angel)

I questioned the requester about that, but he insisted in keeping "anjo" into singular to honor his son called "Angelo".

ok, então, se alguém puder traduzir como se fosse "eu acredito no anjo", provavelmente esta forma ficará também semelhante ao nome de meu filho. Entendam que o que gostaria de evitar é a situação "angelorum, angelis, angeli, angelarum, angelibus, engeloribus, etc...". Um adendo interessante para que os senhores saibam é que aqui no Brasil, no colóquio, nós muito frequentemente usamos a forma: eu acredito em (coisas ou entes no singular). Agradecido.

Laudanno, há muitas expressões coloquiais que são aceitas por convenção mesmo não sendo corretas gramaticalmente num certo idioma, mas ao serem traduzidas para outro elas devem ser corrigidas ou a tradução é que estará errada, entende?
"Eu acredito no anjo" parece uma boa solução.


@ Aneta, Alex, the requester decided to change the request into "I believe in the angel" so I'm editing it, OK?

So, we probably should change the translation a bit:

"Ego angelo credo" - "I believe an angel"

"Credo (in) angelum"- "I believe in the/an angel" (no articles in Latin, so it doesn't matter at all whether it is definite or indefinite)

Please tell me whether you agree or not, dear Alex?

"Credo in angelum"

I do agree, but could you please tell me the difference of meaning between "alicui credo" and "aliquem credo"?

Hi Alex!

alicui credo => I believe what someone says, I know I can rely on him, like "I believe you" (tibi credo). It is also close to "te confido".

in aliquem credo => I believe in someone's existence, for example "Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem" (I believe in God, the Father Almighty)

Hopefully it was clear enough...

Yes, it is.
Sorry, mine was a silly question, because it works exactly in the same way in Italian.

- alicui/alicui rei credo > credo a qualcuno/qualcosa
ex. "Tibi credo" > "Ti credo"

- (in) aliquem/aliquid credo > credo in qualcuno/qualcosa
ex. "(In) Deum credo" > "Credo in Dio"

However, thank you for your everlasting patience and diligence, dear Aneta.

Oh, dear! It is a pure pleasure to work with you and discuss these all grammar issues. Thanks to it I can remember myself many of rules that I have been using for years just by heart without thinking why I did it this way and not another.
Moreover I can also make a mistake sometimes, so ask me questions whenever you are not sure, please...

And I can remind myself Italian too!!!

Yes, "credo a te" or "ti credo" - two possible dative forms for the same pronoun... Am I right?

Yes, you're right!

Ti and a te are the two possible dative forms of the pronoun tu, but there's a subtle difference, as you probably remember: ti is used when you simply want to say "to you", while a te is used when you want to put emphasis on it. I guess it is the same in Polish with ci and tobie, isn't it?

Ha! Exactly, it is!

Ti credo - WierzÄ™ ci
Credo a te - WierzÄ™ tobie (I believe you, not another person, but just you)

Well, unfortunately the result of the translation was not what the requester wanted.
He was expecting the word "Angelo" (his son's name) to be used, not "angelum".
Is there a way to do so?

Well, I guess we can simply replace "angelum" with "Angelo".

But... aren't given names usually shortened to the first letter followed by a dot?

caros amigos, estou muitíssimo agradecido a vocês pela presteza e atenção que dispensaram a minha pessoa. Contudo realmente angelum não fora o que intentava. Então, muito provavelmente, ficarei com a alternativa que eu já sabia: Io credo in angelo, isso é italiano. Pois ficará próximo ao latim e se adequará exato ao nome de meu amado filho. Thank you Lilian, Aneta and Alex. Atenciosamente, Láudanno.

Hmm, I wouldn't decline foreign names in a Latin way...
But when we don't decline and just put the name in the nominative ("Angelo" ) we will get "Credo in Angelo" what can be considered as an Italian sentence, but not Latin. I'm sorry.

Romans didn't know such a name, but the name of your son derives from Latin "angelus" what means "an angel". So even if the word sounds a bit different in different Latin forms it always refers somehow to the name of your son.