Here are installments I and II, for a recap. I had kind of forgotten I was doing this, but readers reminded me and requested more, so here goes.
I didn't get very far before I got sidetracked, did I? I did the sign of the cross, Amen. So the next part is the greeting.
The priest says "Dominus vobiscum" and the people respond "Et cum spiritu tuo."
This means "[The] Lord [be] with you. And with your spirit."
That's the short version. More detail follows, if you're interested.
You have probably noticed by now that at Mass in English, the response is "And also with you." If you are wondering why this is, the answer is that this is a complicated question and you should ask the bishops of the English-speaking countries and their organization ICEL. The current English translation has a lot of issues which are hopefully being addressed right now as the ICEL bishops prepare a new translation. I should take this opportunity to remind everyone that regardless of your opinion on the translation as we go through the text of the Mass, obedience is the mother of virtue, and at Mass you should not on your own authority deviate from the text given to us by the bishops, even for the motive of making it more like the edito typica in Latin, and still less to modify the Mass according to your opinions or personal tastes. The Vatican II Constitution on the Liturgy is very clear on this.
Back to business. Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo.
Dominus means "Lord." You use derivatives of this word all the time in English, such as dominate and dominion. Vobiscum is really two words which are customarily written together. Vobis is the form of vos (the plural "you") that you use with the preposition cum, "with." I am not aware that vos/vobis has any cognates in English because English has no plural second person pronoun, unless you count regional dialect words such as "y'all" and "y'uns." You may recognize cum from phrases such as "magna cum laude."
Notice some of the differences between how you say this in Latin and how you would say it in English. It is not just the same as replacing each Latin word with the equivalent English word. To begin with, word order. In Latin, it is common to put cum later in the sentence than where you would expect "with" in an English sentence. Adjectives, including tuo ("your") typically come after the noun, as in Romance languages. Also, what's left out. In Latin, the verb "to be" can often be omitted. Usually it's "is" that is left out, but this phrase is (and similar phrases are) always translated "The Lord be with you."
Apart from grammar, these words were, of course, not carelessly chosen. Think about the Old Testament and what it means when it says "The Lord was with" so-and-so or "the Lord was not with." For the response, look at the close of Second Timothy (4:22).
Grammar stuff:
Nominative case noun/adjective. Ablative case noun/pronoun/adjective. Preposition. Conjunction.
Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo.
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