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Hi everyone, I'm Italian and I want to ask you all the natives for advice in English. I want to say from Italian to English: amati sempre! (a small sentence with an imperative form, without personal subject).
I thought some option:
- Love yourself always;
- Love always yourself;
- Always love yourself.
Is there the best option here or do I have to try something else different? Thanks a lot!
Out of these, the third one is the best option to sound the most natural.
The second option is weirdly funny. It sounds like "always" is something to be loved.
I wouldn't dismiss it, though as "Love always, yourself" makes sense, but only with the comma.
I don't see any difference between the first and last.
To me the second option seems to mean something else - YOU should always love something [it doesn't matter what, as long as you love something]. But that would be "Ama siempre", no "ti", in Italian. So I would go for "Always love yourself" a the most likely English form if "Amati" means "love yourself", but surely that would be "Ama ti" not "Amati" (as "Amati" is the plural of "Amato" and means "Loved ones") ?
[@moodono169] I agree with Comment #2 CrimsonDyname for the specified situation. It's the only one that sounds natural, in my opinion.
If you're going for more of an imperative focus (i.e., telling someone to do something), then I would go with #3 (always love yourself). If you're going for more of an inspirational quote (as opposed to an imperative), #1 might be better (love yourself always).
"Never love yourself" is the best choice. Sorry, I'm just kidding.
Hello!
Third option is the best among these three, but where does this "yourself" even come from? The sentence only means "love always!", love constantly, love each time, always be in state of love, right? So what's wrong with "Always love!" or "Love always!"?
I don't speak Italian, but I wonder : shouldn't 'amati' be a passive plural (something like "the beloved ones" ?) And shouldn't "love yourself!" be "ama te", or something ? Just asking, out of curiosity.
I was thinking that as well.
In Italian it should be something like "ama" or "amore", but not "amati"
But I'm not Italian too.
All three versions sound like perfectly valid English to me - which is surprising, given how strict the syntax in English is.
If you replace always with forever, then English syntax rules kick in and there is only one correct answer: "Love yourself forever." For some reason, the word "always" is more flexible.
Version 1: "Love yourself, always." I would pause between the words "yourself" and "always". I added a comma to indicate the pause, but you don't need to write it that way. It sounds perfectly natural but extra poetic.
Version 2: "Love always yourself." This definitely has a different meaning (different semantics) than the other two, and is thus not the correct translation. The meaning would depend on the tone of voice mostly. My initial reading was like this: "Love always yourself", with the word "yourself" stressed. So among the things you could love, like your spouse or your children, it emphasizes that you should always love yourself, because you can't be a good spouse or parent if you don't love yourself, even if you do love your family. However, other commenters read different meaning into it, and I agree with them, also. It would depend on tone of voice, or when written, context. It is emphasizing something, though. It is expressing a less common piece of advice.
Version 3: "Always love yourself." This sounds the most natural to me. It sounds so natural that it is bordering on unoriginal and not poetic. It's fine, but what is the context? Is it a song or poem, or a tattoo, or a tapestry? Those things often take more poetic forms, like Version 1. But if I were speaking out loud and casually, Version 3 is the only one that would naturally come out of my mouth. Because I don't speak in poetry.
I'm pretty sure that Onorina would not have told us the sentence is imperative if "Amati" was plural of "Amato", so we should treat it as imperative "ama" and "ti" meaning "you". So I'm reckon "Amati siempre" means "Always love yourself",
Mmmh, but "siempre" would rather be Spanish.
As you say "amati" can have a double meaning because it all a matter of accents.
àmati (with the accent on the first "a") is the imperative form of "amare" > to love;
amàti (with the accent on the second "a") is the past participle plural of "amato" > loved.
That YOURSELF comes from amaTI, that could be also said "Ama (love) te (yourself).
I would like to say to you all a huge thank you for answering me and fulfilling my doubts. The expression "amati sempre" is the title of a song I wanted to translate > https://lyricstranslate.com/en/ultimo-amati-sempre-lyrics.html. There is already an English translation but, since Italian is a multi-faceted language, "amati" has been considered as the past participle instead as the imperative form. But since my mother tongue is not English I wasn't able to see the best option for the title. The most of you opted for the third one "always love yourself", so I'll just have to trust you. Thanks again!