I wanted to find out how to say in Latin "everything will be good" (like in "all'll gon'a be fine"). I came up with Omnium bene futurum. Is this o.k., or am I too ill-Latined?
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I'm not familiar with the reference...I assume you mean, "Everything will turn out well"?– brianpckMay 22, 2017 at 17:19
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Welcome to the site and thank you for the interesting question! I hope someone knows a good Latin idiom for that purpose. Meanwhile, I suggest taking a look at our site tour (this is a link).– Joonas Ilmavirta ♦May 22, 2017 at 17:19
6 Answers
The verb cadere ('to fall'), when paired with an adverb (or when its subject is paired with an adjective), can mean 'to turn out (in the manner denoted by the adverb/adjective)' – for example:
quis negat, aut quis iam audebit, quod male cecidit, bene consultum putare?, 'Who denies it, or who now will dare to consider what has turned out badly to be a good measure?' [Cicero, Pro Rabirio Postumo 5]
haud inritae cecidere minae, 'the threats turned out (to be) by no means empty' [Livy 6.35.10]
In a number of the attested uses in the Oxford Latin Dictionary, the subject is just res ('thing,' 'matter'), used in either the singular or plural:
sed si haec res graviter cecidit stultitia mea, / Philto, est ager sub urbe hic nobis. 'But if this matter has turned out badly because of my stupidity, Philto, we have a farm here near the city.' [Plautus, Trinummus 507]
So, going with the plural res, and using the closest opposite of Cicero's male ('badly') as the simplest solution, you could say:
res bene cadent (or res bene casurae sunt or simply res bene casurae), 'things will turn out well.'
Although you could also say omnes res instead of just res, to mean 'all things,' 'everything,' I don't think it's really necessary here.
I found some attestations for omne futurum as "all things to come" (Seneca and Statius). You could say omne bene futurum for "everything will be good" (not omnium, though, since it's a plural genitive).
Another simple expression, and a one I would suggest, is omnia bene erunt, "all (things) will be well". This is good Latin and difficult to misinterpret; omne bene futurum can also be understood as "everything that will be good", leading to a rather different tone.
Please leave a comment and tell how these match your needs, so I (or someone else) can suggest other alternatives or know that you got what you need.
What I suggested may or may not be idiomatic Latin; see the comments for some details. My answer was based mostly on intuition and partly on quick look into a corpus — this is not a thoroughly researched and cited answer. However, the OP did not ask for classical Latin nor do I think that every turn of phrase must be attested before being allowed to use. I am open to other ideas, and if my answer gives rise to a more refined way of putting it, by all means give a new answer. My answer is not conclusive (which is not unusual for questions like this) and may give rise to follow-up questions. As settling those new questions are beyond my reach in this answer, I request that they be explored separately if there is interest. At any rate, I do believe my suggestions are understandable and okay Latin whether they are fully idiomatic or not.
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Thanks a lot! Thanks a lot! (15 characters at least, that's why I insist :) )– AHN AHNMay 25, 2017 at 13:27
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1In these quotations futūrum is a noun "the future", so your suggestion is an infelicitous mix of the form's two grammatical functions - I read it as a single benefutūrum "the good-things-to-come". As for omnia bene erunt, I've only found bene est/erit as an impersonal construction meaning "you will have a good time, won't have any discomfort". Plautus has dē eō nunc bene sunt meaning, per Loeb, "they’re now having a good time from it", and there's a possible CABALLI BELLE SVNT in a tabula Vindolandensis - the usage of bene as subject compliment (to omnia) doesn't seem to exist. Jun 10, 2019 at 22:12
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@Unbrutal_Russian: It may not exist because if "things" is understood, "(all) things", "omnia" requires an adjective "bona"; not, adverb "bene". This expression appears to work, in English, because adverb "well" is irregular--not ending -ly.– tonyJun 17, 2019 at 12:13
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Unbrutal_Russian: That Latin uses fewer words than English; things being understood, can be seen from your "Plautus"-quote.– tonyJun 17, 2019 at 12:16
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@tony:Taking some more time with that Plautus quote will let you see that it implies illī "they", and yet has the adverb bene "well", not the adjective bonī "good". Look at my reply below will let you see examples such as omnia rēctē, where an overt noun omnia "everything" has the adverb rēctē "right" as its predicate, not the adjective rēcta "right". This is because Latin allows certain adverbs to serve as subject compliments, and has nothing to do with which type of adverbs English allows to fulfill this function. Different languages have different grammars. Jun 18, 2019 at 1:17
I do not find futūrum est modified by a manner adjunct, probably not least because futūrum is also a noun "the future", and such a usage would be an infelicitous mixture of the form's two grammatical functions - I would read it as a single noun benefutūrum "the good-things-to-come" by default.
I'm not sure about Omnia bene erunt because, as far as I see, it (along with similar adverbs) occurs either impersonally in reference to subjective perception:
- Ubi tū lepidē volēs esse tibi, ‘mea rosa,’ mihi dīcitō... (‘When you want to have a lovely time, say to me, “my rose,”...’ Pl. Bac. 83)
- Jūrat bene sōlīs esse marītīs. ('He swears that only the married are well off.' Hor. Ep. 1.1.89)
...or as a subject compliment to animate nouns with seemingly the same meaning:
- Minōre nūsquam bene fuī dispendiō. (‘I’ve never had a good time at lower cost.’ Pl. Men. 485)
- Quīn ergō īmus atque obsonium cūrāmus, pulchrē ut sīmus? (‘Why don’t we go then and sort out the food in order to have a lovely time?’ Pl. Mer. 582–3)
There's also the impersonal interjection Bene habet, equivalent to Bene est ("Fine", "All right", "That's good"), but I don't see it used in any tense other than the present in the classical corpus. There are a couple of examples of bene sē habēbit, one referring to rēs and another to a person, and a third one to ossa in a medical treatise.
So what are my own suggestions, then? Judging by the last example, rēs sē bene habēbunt should work, but ultimately I think the problem is the choice of adverb rather than construction or tense. While bene refers to subjective state, objectively "fine" is expressed with rēctē:
- Ūnī nīmīrum rēctē tibi semper erunt rēs... (‘For you alone, of course, things will always go well...’ Hor. S. 2.2.106)
- Ego puto tē bellissimē, si rēctē erit, cum quaestōre Mesciniō dēcursūrum. ('I think it would be very nice, if all goes well, for you to sail home with Quaestor Mescinius.' Cic. Fam. 16.4.3.4)
- Rēctēne omnia, quod jam prīdem epistulae tuae cessant? ('Is everything all right? Because I haven't recieved any letters from you for a while now. PlinIun.Ep.3.17.1.1)
Among other expressions I can suggest salvae rēs erunt:
- Salva rēs est! ('The affair is all right/All is well/We're safe in regard to this')
As well as tūtō erimus:
- Ut tūtō sim quod labōrās, id mihi nunc facillimum est... (‘As to your anxiety for my personal safety, that is now the easiest thing in the world for me...’ Cic. Fam. 14.3.3)
In the end, seeing as these don't seem to be idiomatic interjection-like phrases in their own right, I suggest joining them with some idiomatic reply used to comfort someone:
- Sine cūrā sīs, salvae rēs erunt! ('Don't worry, things will turn out good!')
- Aliud cūrā, omnia rēctē erunt! ('Don't worry about it, everything will be all right!')
- Nōlī tē cruciāre, tūtō erimus! ('Don't torture yourself about it, we'll be safe!')
If you need to underline a happy issue of some definite situation, you can phrase this using the verbs of happening. Rēs bene cadent/cāsūrae sunt from another reply is a good option, and other suggestions from S&H include prosperē/fēlīciter ēvenīre, bene cēdere, prosperē prōcēdere.
I like the most simple translation: omnia valebunt. "All things will be well."
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2@Nickmite: Thanks for adding to the debate. Isn't "valeo" more to do with health; well-being; I-am-strong? Tried "omnia = all things"; but, was advised (comments) that it means "all-neuter-objects". Unbrutal_Russian may ask yourself for an example of its use.– tonyJun 20, 2019 at 8:30
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2I really don't think this can mean what you want. When referring to inanimate things with no further context, valēre means "to have efficacy, to be valid". Thus the phrase would mean "everything will be valid". If I'm mistaken, @tony is very much right in suggesting that I, as well as other potential readers, would be interested in an attested example of such use. Jun 20, 2019 at 9:29
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Nickimite, if you can add a discussion of what valere means and how it fits this context, that would be great. Did you perhaps have a specific situation in mind where this is the perfect translation? Your suggested translation is indeed simple, but it would be more useful if you could elaborate on it.– Joonas Ilmavirta ♦Jun 22, 2019 at 16:49
This is similar to cnread's excellent answer (res bene cadent); but, better than my (original) ans.
Ovidus Fasti 2; line 380:
"...et memorem famam quod bene cessit habet," = "...and it (the day) has (achieves) an unforgetting (lasting) fame because it turned out well,".
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1Rather "because it turned out well" (quod is not the relative pronoun here, because fama is feminine -- it would be quae).– TKRDec 3, 2019 at 2:10
Try: "omnia bona erunt" giving: "all (things) will be good".
In the wake of the contribution from Unbrutal_Russian ("all the goods will be there" or "all [neuter items] will be of good quality"), it is clear that this simplistic solution is not the best solution. Similarly, "omnia bene erunt" widely quoted around the net, is also unsuitable (above). But let these stimulate debate and provide guidance of where not to go.
EDIT: 13/11/2020:
That "bona" can mean "goods" is attested in Allen & Greenough p. 563(a):
"vetuere [bona] reddi" (Liv. ii. 5) =
"They forbade the return of the goods (that the goods be returned).
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I'm afraid this means either "all the goods will be there", or "all [neuter items] will be of good quality". In my own reply I explain that you need an adverb instead of the adjective here, and that this adverb should in all likelyhood be rēctē, because I don't find this use of bene. If you still think your sentence is correct and means what you want, I'll be grateful if you provide examples of this usage. Jun 18, 2019 at 1:29
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@Unbrutal_Russian: Thank you. Was not convinced by my own answer; but, it had a simplistic logic about it. Such delightful simplicity, if correct, would have been pointed out, earlier, by colleagues, such as yourself. In "all the goods will be there", where does "there" come from?– tonyJun 18, 2019 at 10:37
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Unbrutal_Russian: From your answer: "sine cura sis, salvae res erunt"; then, "omnes salvae res erunt" giving "all things will turn out good", approaching the OP's request?– tonyJun 18, 2019 at 11:47
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"There" is a mandatory dummy pronoun in English, the same as the first one in "there's a sheep there". The equivalents of "everything" in my suggestions are rēs or omnia - there's no need for omnēs if you already put rēs, and in fact it seems to change the meaning of that word from the abstract to the concrete. Jun 19, 2019 at 4:45
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@Unbrutal_Russian: Joonas (above) suggests a new Q on the use of the adverb as a subject-complement. Given cnread's ex. (res bene cadent) not sure that it's necessary; but, as this was your own research, the right lies with yourself.– tonyJun 20, 2019 at 7:56