English to Latin Translation: I promise to be the light in your darkness

by Branden B
(New Castle, DE, USA)

Trying to say "I promise to be the light in your darkness" and through process of translating and re-translating with Google translate (I know, it's not a preferred way to do things by professionals) I came up with "Promitto esse ad lucem in tuo tenebrae" I was wondering, is this correct?


Hi Brandon,

Google gets so close! But...

Google's phrase translated back into English: I promise to be toward light in your of darkness. Doesn't sound too bad, but the Latin is worse than the English, if that makes sense: You just can't say promitto esse for I promise to be. Bad Latin.

Here's my attempt at it: Me lucem in tenebris tuis futurum promitto. Which means I promise that I will be the light in your darkness.

As always, word order is very flexible in Latin. Many variations of this basic sentence are possible.

And perhaps I am being too literal in my translation. I don't really like the phrase tenebris tuis because I don't know if Latin would ever use the possessive with the word darkness. But it basically says what you want it to mean.

If the person speaking is female, change futurum to futuram. If your darkness is to be plural, then tenebris vestris.

Hope this helps, and thanks for asking a Latin teacher.

Cheers,

John