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I'm trying to achieve the sentence:

One day you will achieve great things.

This could potentially be translated as:

Magna olim conficies.

But the first thing that I tried to do was to use the phrase "One day" or "Uno die" like this:

Magna uno die conficies.

Which I'm not really sure if it would mean what I'm trying to achieve.

Would Romans understand this phrase, and would modern Latin speakers understand this?

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    I'd translate that as “You'll achieve great things in a single day.” Jan 7, 2022 at 20:13
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    Modern Latin speakers of English would DEFINITELY understand. Modern Latin speakers in general would probably be able to understand it if they knew the author was a modern person -- that context would prime them to look for mistakes given that few people are truly fluent in Latin.
    – Nickimite
    Jan 7, 2022 at 20:53
  • @SebastianKoppehel What is "that" in your comment? If your "that" is "magna uno die conficies", I agree with you. However, note that the sentence we're told that OP is trying to translate into Latin ("One day you will achieve great things") does not exactly mean the same as yours "You'll achieve great things in a single day".
    – Mitomino
    Jan 7, 2022 at 22:16
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    @Mitomino I meant “Magna uno die conficies.” Jan 7, 2022 at 22:18

1 Answer 1

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The phrase "one day" indicates an indefinite future time. The most common way to express that idea in classical Latin was with aliquando, though olim is also found, and quandoque has a more wishy-washy feel (at some point or other, eventually).

By contrast, uno die would mean "in a single day," as when in Plautus' Miles Gloriosus, the titular boastful soldier's slave recounts his (fictitious) exploits:

Memini: centum in Cilicia et quinquaginta, centum in Scytholatronia, triginta Sardos, sexaginta Macedones sunt homines quos tu occidisti uno die.

"I do remember this. In Cilicia there were a hundred and fifty men, a hundred in Cryphiolathronia, thirty at Sardis, sixty men of Macedon, whom you slaughtered altogether in one day."

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  • The phrase "sooner-or-later" would be "quandoque", is that correct?
    – tony
    Jan 9, 2022 at 11:30
  • @tony yes, I think that works nicely. Jan 9, 2022 at 14:55

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