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I'm trying to translate, "If it can bleed, we can kill it," but I'm really confused about how the neuter gender would work in this case.

The closest version I got to thus far has been "Si potest cruentare, possumus occidere"...but it doesn't sound right to me.

P.S. Whoops. The original quote from Predator is, "If it bleeds, we can kill it." 🙃 That would make my translation something more like, "Si sanguinat, possumus occidere." Does this sound a bit more reasonable?

P.P.S. And I guess my first version could be "Si sanguinare potest, interficere possumus"?

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I would get rid of the if…then construction here, and rely on the verbs: quod sanguinat perit, "that which [can] bleed, [can] perish". This is a bit less explicit about who's doing the killing than the English, but makes for a snappier motto.

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  • Why quid instead of quod?
    – cmw ♦
    Commented Dec 25, 2022 at 16:35
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    @cmw Good point, quod is probably better here.
    – Draconis ♦
    Commented Dec 25, 2022 at 17:31
  • @Draconis I am very happy with this answer! I am, however, still curious how this might be rendered if we did choose to use the less fancy phrasing. As I wrote above, the neuter in Latin is super confusing to me and I was hoping to see some examples. :) /grateful /friendly
    – mig81
    Commented Dec 26, 2022 at 7:01

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