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This came up as an idea for a team phrase for a sports team. The purpose would be to convey that people visited, joined, and are still playing the sport. (Disclaimer: I know almost nothing of Latin.)

I think "play" is ludo and would sound nice if they could say veni, vidi, ludi. However, if the -i indicates past tense then that's not entirely right, it should be present tense.

What is the present tense of "to play", and how would you suggest to use this in a team phrase?

Edit: I know the alliteration is broken, but it's okay for the team.

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    Your translation is fine (grammatically), but it sounds funny. Caesar's quote works because of the alliteration.
    – fdb
    Feb 22, 2019 at 15:36
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    The perfect of ludo is lusi, not ludi, FYI
    – MPW
    Feb 23, 2019 at 14:32

1 Answer 1

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There is no specific conjugation for the English present continuous in Latin. There is only present tense. As Wikipedia states:

A present tense like portō can be translated as "I carry," "I do carry," or "I am carrying".

Thus, your translation is correct. The first person, indicative, present tens of "I play" is ludo.

If you want to put further emphasis in that you are still playing, you can add a word for "still". As far as I know, some options are etiam, adhuc, tamen. So your phrase could be

veni, vidi, ludo etiam

Someone might have a better idea which word fits better the context. I'm not an expert.

PS: Tom suggests adhuc "better implies that the subject is continuing to play, even as he speaks."

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  • I think that veni, vidi, adhuc ludo better implies that the subject is continuing to play, even as he speaks.
    – Tom Cotton
    Feb 22, 2019 at 14:42
  • @TomCotton Thanks. I think a question about the differences might be interesting!
    – luchonacho
    Feb 22, 2019 at 15:08

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