The Pater Noster: give, forgive, deliver

Give, forgive, deliver: the imperatives

The second half turns to God directly, with three singular imperatives:

Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie puts the object first for emphasis: it is the bread being asked for, and its two adjectives agree with it in the accusative. Hodie, today, is worn down from hoc die, on this day.

Debts and debtors

You forgive a thing (accusative) to a person (dative). Debita are debts, things owed: the Latin, like the Greek, uses a money metaphor. Trespasses came into English through Tyndale and the Book of Common Prayer.

Sicut et nos dimittimus is as we also forgive: once again et means also, and it carries the comparison.

Do not: ne nos inducas

Latin does not put non in front of an imperative. The prayer forbids with ne plus the present subjunctive:

• Et ne nos inducas in tentationem. - And do not lead us into temptation.

Inducas is the present subjunctive of induco, lead in. Classical prose preferred noli with an infinitive or ne with the perfect subjunctive (ne induxeris); ne with the present is common in poetry, comedy and Christian Latin.

Tentatio is a trial or test, something you are put through, like the Greek peirasmos: do not put us to the test.

Sed libera nos a malo: a takes the ablative, and malo can come from neuter malum, an evil thing, or masculine malus, an evil person. Both have the ablative malo, so the Latin can mean from evil or from the evil one, just as the Greek can.

Saying it

At mass, use Church Latin, the Italianate pronunciation everyone around you will use. This course's audio speaks classical Latin. The pronunciation lesson has every rule.