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I'm considering getting a tattoo with the phrase "Always Truth" or "Always the Truth" in Latin, but I'm not 100% how to translate it, because I don't really understand Latin noun declension. My first guess was Semper Veritas, and based on Semper Fidus and Semper Fidelis, I'm guessing that's correct, though Fidus and Fidelis are adjectives and Veritas is a noun, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

Further, Google Translate indicates the correct translation is Semper Veritatem, though I know better than to assume that Google Translate always knows best, particularly as I suppose this is grammatically more of a sentence fragment than a proper sentence.

Joonas Ilmavirta
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Zeus
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    Welcome to the website! You are most completely correct in not trusting Google Translate. Frankly, they are awful at translating Latin. Sometimes, in my free time, I go on Google Translate Community and do some translating and quality control for them. :) It's quite entertaining sometimes... – Sam K Mar 02 '17 at 22:53

1 Answers1

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If you want something along the lines of semper fidelis, I'd suggest a simple semper verus "always true", which has the benefit of meaning more than just the literal truth (i.e. loyal, genuine, etc). If you want something a bit fancier, you could go with semper honestus. Not only would honestus indicate "truthfulness", but in fact mostly "uprightness." It says more about your character.

If you mean it in the sense of "I always want/am looking for the truth," i.e. what's real instead of what's fake, then yes, semper veritas is perfectly fine and good.

Sam K
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cmw
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    "Veritas" alone, btw, is the motto of Harvard. Doesn't seem a stretch to put "semper" next to it. – brianpck Mar 03 '17 at 16:20