Breakdown of Mihi non placet odium; concordia autem et bona voluntas omnibus placent.
et
and
non
not
bonus
good
mihi
me
Questions & Answers about Mihi non placet odium; concordia autem et bona voluntas omnibus placent.
Why is it mihi and not ego?
Because placere works differently from English to like.
In Latin, the thing that is liked is the grammatical subject, and the person who likes it goes in the dative case.
So:
- mihi = to me
- odium = the subject, hatred
- placet = is pleasing
So Mihi non placet odium is literally Hatred is not pleasing to me, which is the Latin way to say I do not like hatred.
If you used ego, that would be nominative I, which does not fit this construction.
Why is odium nominative? In English it feels like the object.
That is because Latin is not using the English pattern I like X.
Instead, it uses the pattern X pleases me.
So in Mihi non placet odium:
- odium is nominative singular because it is the subject
- mihi is dative singular because it shows to whom the thing is pleasing
A very common beginner habit is to look for a direct object after placet, but with placere, the thing liked is usually not an object at all; it is the subject.
Why do we get placet in the first clause but placent in the second?