How to Pray the Our Father in Latin

The Pater Noster is the Latin form of the prayer that Christ himself taught his disciples. The Gospel text reached the Church in Greek, and Catholics have prayed this Latin rendering for many centuries. Learning it in the Church's traditional Latin connects you to that unbroken tradition and reveals layers of meaning that English translations can only approximate.

Here is the complete prayer, followed by a word-by-word breakdown with Ecclesiastical pronunciation.

The Full Prayer

Word by Word

Pronunciation Tips

In Ecclesiastical Latin (Church Latin), the pronunciation follows Italian rules. The most important differences from Classical Latin are: c before e or i is pronounced "ch" (as in "church"), ae is pronounced "eh", and gn is pronounced "ny" (as in the Italian word "lasagna").

So caelis becomes "CHEH-lees" and regnum becomes "REHN-yoom" with the soft ny sound.

A Note on Grammar

Latin is an inflected language, which means that word endings change to indicate grammatical function. In the Pater Noster, you can see this clearly: noster (our, masculine nominative) vs. nostrum (our, masculine accusative) vs. nostra (our, feminine/neuter). The endings tell you the role each word plays in the sentence.

Don't worry about mastering all the grammar right away. The most important thing is to begin praying the words and letting their meaning sink in over time.