I think you can achieve the same "compression" in other latin languages. In portuguese, you may be able to translate this as "despedira-se demais" or "despediu-se demais" (despediu-se = she said goodbye, despedira-se = pluperfect form of she said goodbye, demais = too many times).
How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before.” in Latin?
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Re: How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before.” in Latin?
#22People wondering why this is on Hacker News - probably the fascinating part is how a relatively complex 7 word phrase in English translates idiomatically into a 2 word phrase in Latin.
Oh yes! It touches language and compression, both dear subjects to programmers.
If the accepted answer stands, that's remarkable. I wonder how one could measure a language efficiency. Maybe syllable count ? But one would need a sort of assembly to translate to and verify that a sentence computes the intended information.
Re: How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before.” in Latin?
#23I realise it's from song lyrics so doesn't have to make sense but this instinctively scans as poor grammar to me.
Shouldn't it be "she'd" past tense?
Otherwise it's just someone saying "goodbye too many times before" and someone who'd previously said "goodbye" more than is acceptable.
...I'm almost certainly overthinking this but I'd wager that tense error is important when translating to Latin.
It's like reading XML where someone's left out a closing tag. :P
Re: How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before.” in Latin?
#24Yes, latin crams more meaning into each word (gender, tense ect) but that doesnt make it superior, rather different. English is generally short than french, but french remains the more exacting and clear language for communicating specific ideas.
One could also say that French is 'rather different', not better or more clear. Let alone superior (though I do not know where that claim came from).
Re: How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before.” in Latin?
#25[flagged]
chatgpt is no cicero
Re: How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before.” in Latin?
#26Yes, latin crams more meaning into each word (gender, tense ect) but that doesnt make it superior, rather different. English is generally short than french, but french remains the more exacting and clear language for communicating specific ideas.
Nitpick: it's etc for et cetera
And sentences generally end with periods, or release from confinement.
Re: How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before.” in Latin?
#27People wondering why this is on Hacker News - probably the fascinating part is how a relatively complex 7 word phrase in English translates idiomatically into a 2 word phrase in Latin.
The two-word phrase that was offered in the answer (nimium saepe) was actually not a full answer, it was only for "too many times". The answer actually did not, well.. answer the actual question.
Re: How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before.” in Latin?
#28I realise it's from song lyrics so doesn't have to make sense but this instinctively scans as poor grammar to me. Shouldn't it be "she'd" past tense? Otherwise it's just someone saying "goodbye too many times before" and someone who'd previously said "goodbye" more than is acceptable. ...I'm almost certainly overthinking this but I'd wager that tense error is important when translating to Latin. It's like reading XML…
Doesn’t adding the ‘d change it from past tense to passive voice past tense?
Re: How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before.” in Latin?
#29People wondering why this is on Hacker News - probably the fascinating part is how a relatively complex 7 word phrase in English translates idiomatically into a 2 word phrase in Latin.
German has many of those moments. It's a brilliant language for very specific uses, like user manuals.
Re: How would you say “She said goodbye too many times before.” in Latin?
#30People wondering why this is on Hacker News - probably the fascinating part is how a relatively complex 7 word phrase in English translates idiomatically into a 2 word phrase in Latin.
The two-word phrase that was offered in the answer (nimium saepe) was actually not a full answer, it was only for "too many times". The answer actually did not, well.. answer the actual question.
In the linked answer, there's a two-word full answer phrase:
> So I would cut this down to something like nimium valedīxit or totiēns valedīxit: "she bade farewell too much before" or "she bade farewell so many times before".