How can I ask a translation or homework question?

Question

I have some questions of the following types:

• English to Latin translation
• Latin to English translation
• Homework questions

What's the best way to ask these sorts of questions here?

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^{Related: What do we do with translation requests?}

Answer 1

This is not a translation service. It's also not a "do your homework for you" service. It is, however, a question and answer site for students of Latin, from beginners to experts.

So how can you ask translation and homework-related questions? The key is to show your work.

That means:

• Try to figure out the answer yourself.
• Explain why you were unable to get a satisfactory answer on your own.

Research effort

The first step is doing your own research. Here are a few tips.

For translation questions, use the following resources to try to identify the best words that would meet your needs:

• Dictionaries like Lewis and Short and Wiktionary (see the dictionary question for more options)
• Word study tools, like that of Perseus
• Lemmatization tools, like that of Collatinus (also available as desktop software)

For other types of questions, consider checking:

• Grammars like those of Bennett and Gildersleeve
• Corpora like The Latin Library and Packhum
• We also have a list of self study material which you might find helpful

Explain

After having done your research, explain why it did not answer your question. Tell us:

• which resources you checked
• what you found in each one
• what you still hope to learn

Summary

Homework and translation questions are welcome here, but we expect you to:

• Demonstrate that you have researched your question, and
• Explain why your research still leaves you with a question

If you follow these guidelines, your question will be more likely to attract upvotes, and less likely to be closed.