I received this question:

Today I completed Latin Worksheet 4C and I had a question concerning it. There were 20 or so Latin sentences for me to translate into English, and one of them was: “Terra non est.” My translation was: “Earth is not”, but the Answers said that the correct translation was “There is no earth.” Could you please explain to me when it is appropriate to add the word “there” (or “the”) into a Latin-English translation?

Here is my reply:

Your translation works.  Just sounds a little off in English, you know?

Est is annoying.  It can be translated three ways. 

• Est = is
• Est = there is
• Est = he, she, or it is.

Same with sunt.

• Sunt = are
• Sunt = they are
• Sunt = there are

Whenever you are translating these words, just pick the one that works best.