Breakdown of Ut pater dicit, veritas amicitiam servat.
Questions & Answers about Ut pater dicit, veritas amicitiam servat.
Here ut means as or just as.
So Ut pater dicit means as father says or just as the father says.
This is a very common use of ut. In other sentences, ut can also mean things like so that, when, or although, but here it is simply introducing a comparison or reference: as X says.
Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show the grammatical roles.
English strongly depends on position:
- the father says
- subject first, verb second
Latin does not need to keep that exact order. Pater dicit, dicit pater, and even other arrangements can often be understood because pater is nominative and dicit is the verb.
Here ut pater dicit is a perfectly natural Latin order.
Pater is nominative singular.
It is the subject of dicit, so it is the person doing the saying. In dictionary form, pater is already nominative singular, meaning father.
Even though some Latin nouns change a lot in different cases, keeps this form in the nominative singular.