Breakdown of Mater addit: "Noli mendacium dicere, sed veritatem iterum dic."
Questions & Answers about Mater addit: "Noli mendacium dicere, sed veritatem iterum dic."
Addit is the 3rd person singular present active indicative of addeō, addere – “to add.”
- Mater addit = “The mother adds / goes on to say.”
- It’s in the present tense, describing what the mother is doing as she speaks.
- Here it introduces additional speech after something she has already said, like English “she adds,” “she continues,” or “she goes on.”
Latin often forms a negative command with noli / nolite + infinitive.
- noli is the 2nd person singular imperative of nolō = “to be unwilling, to not want.”
- Literally: noli mendacium dicere = “be unwilling to say a lie,” which functions as “don’t say a lie / don’t tell a lie.”
- Structure:
- noli – “don’t (you)…”
- dicere – infinitive, “to say”
- mendacium – “a lie,” object of dicere
So noli + infinitive is a standard, natural way in Latin to say “don’t do X.”
Because Latin treats negative and positive commands differently:
Noli dicere: