<p>If you are better at Latin than I ( very low threshold) , please help with the popular “don’t let the bast@rds grind you down” phrase to paint onto a friends coffee mug for Christmas. What is the correct sex and tense for female, past? All the premade sites seem to be interpret it as masculine.</p>
<p>Interpret what as masculine? As you may know, not all (in fact, the majority of) words in the romance languages can be both masculine and feminine.</p>
<p>Aren’t “bast@rds” always masculine?</p>
<p>Noli permittere bastardi verberant te*.
“Noli permittere” this is the imperative form of “do not let.” “Noli” (do not) paired with the infinitive of allow (permittere) creates the “do not allow” construction and the negative imperative. This construction also provides the assumption of “you,” in which case the vocative case of you is not used as it is implied.
“Bastardi verberant:” this construction translates to “bastards beating/hitting.” I am unsure of the tense of the verb you want, so here are a few options:
Perfect-verberaverunt (beat in the past tense)
Future-verberent (will beat).
“te” is the accusative of you, as the subject of the beating being done.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, for Latin just about every noun is either masculine or feminine. Therefore, bastards will likely always be masculine, though there are many, many words for it, and “you” is generally neuter. The adjective will follow the noun’s gender and the gender is set for the noun.</p>
<p>Source: 4 years of Latin, though I just graduated and there may be a few mistakes. I would check with your Latin teacher just in case.</p>
<p>^^^Posted by my S…not me…just to clarify.</p>
<p>[Illegitimi</a> non carborundum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegitimi_non_carborundum]Illegitimi”>Illegitimi non carborundum - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Here’s an explanation of the original “Latin” phrase - Illegitimi non carborundum - it’s not real Latin at all, so making it feminine, probably ruins the joke. In any event, I can’t help you with make the fake Latin sound feminine since only my kids took Latin. When I put it in google translate the fake Latin actually translates to “Illigitimate not rats”.</p>
<p>It is incorrect to say that the majority of words in Latin languages can be both masculine and feminine. Nouns referring to people (and not always) when there is not a separate form for the other gender or adjectives used as nouns (nationalities, for instance, when there is not also a separate form) may be both masculine and feminine. But even that is rare, at least in French, Spanish, and Italian. Certainly, nouns referring to things/concepts have only one gender 99.9% of the time.</p>