Te Deum laudamus

We Praise You, O God

Level 1

The first lines of an ancient hymn, learned whole.

How It Works

Latin	English
Te Deum laudamus:	We praise you, O God:
te Dominum confitemur.	we acknowledge you as Lord.
Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur.	All the earth worships you, the eternal Father.

Te is you and the thing praised, so it is in the accusative. Deum and Dominum are accusative too. Laudamus ends in -mus: we praise.

The next verbs, confitemur and veneratur, look passive but are active in meaning. They are deponent verbs, which Level 4 explains.

The first line sounds like TEH DEH-oom low-DAH-moos in both Church and classical Latin.

Te Deum laudamus.
We praise you, O God.
Te and Deum are both accusative. Laudamus is we praise.
Te Dominum confitemur.
We acknowledge you as Lord.
Confitemur is deponent: passive in form, active in meaning.
Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur.
All the earth worships you, the eternal Father.
Terra is the subject. The word order puts the objects first.
Tu rex gloriae, Christe.
You are the king of glory, O Christ.
Tu is the subject and rex gloriae is the king of glory. Christe is the form for calling Christ.
Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius.
You are the everlasting Son of the Father.
Es is you are. Sempiternus agrees with Filius.

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Te Deum laudamusLevel 1We Praise You, O God

Te Deum laudamus puts the objects before the verb, so the accusative and free word order come first.

tetuDeuslaudo

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