I’ve tried the Google translation and it comes up with two different answers depending, on all things, whether there is a comma or not. The phrase is: First, do nothing
It is meant as an imperative in the sense of when coming upon a situation, stop and suss out what is happening and not to jump into things with instant impressions. When entered with the comma, Google responds Primum, ne quid
Without, Primum facis nihil
Comparing it to the Hippocratic admonition Primum non nocere (First do no harm) I would incline towards the first translation, but what do I know about the subtleties of Latin. Can any scholars tell me which of the two I’d want, or would something else entirely be more suitable?
My Latin is very rusty, but the second version looks much more likely to me. Somehow, the first version seems to have lost its verb altogether, and I think it says something like “First, not what”. “Nihil” does mean “nothing” and I think “facis” is some form of the verb to do, though whether it is the right one I am not sure.
I am also not sure that “primum” is the right form. I would have guessed “primus”, but I am not sure whether the word can be used adverbially (as "first is being used here) anyway.
Classical Latin did not use punctuation at all, but it is generally acceptable to punctuate modern Latin if you want. I do not know why the comma confused Google translate so much.
ETA: j666 probably knows better than me. (He might be the Emperor Nero. :))
I think I found a good conjugation for facio. Is this to be addressed to one person, or a group?
The singular imperative is “face”; the plural is “facite”.
So, if you are instructing a group of people, use “facite”. However, if you are advising each person in that group on how to act as an individual, use “face”.
Was that clear? For a platoon of Marine, “facite”; for a graduating class, “face”.
“Primo” is the adverb, “primus, -a, -um” is the adjective.
(I’m checking this all out on line; I just know enough Latin to know the word “conjugate”, and not confuse it with conjugal.)
*Facere *is a special case, being one of three Latin verbs whose singular imperatives are truncated – dūc, dīc and fac.
Prīmus -a -um is an adjective, but two forms of it are commonly used adverbally: prīmum and prīmō. Either would be interchangeable in the sense of ‘in the first place’ as would prīmum dum or prīmumdum. Nīl is also interchangable with nihil. That allows for a slightly punchier version:
Prīmō, nīl fac.
Of course, you could always go with the negative command:
Doh! I forgot fer, the fourth truncated imperative.
The macrons over the vowels indicate that the vowel is long. These marks are thought of as being for beginners, but I personally think that they should be used all the time for the same reason we put the e at the end of rate even though context will nearly always distinguish it from rat.
It has been many years since I studied Latin, but I seem to recall that the construction of a negative imperative literally translated to “Be unwilling to <verb>” rather than “Don’t <verb>.” Possibly?