22.02.24: Asking questions [1]; saying ‘yes’ and ‘no’

There are different ways of asking questions in Latin. Here, we will focus on two of them.

[1] If the sentence begins with an interrogative word i.e. a word which asks a question e.g. ‘who?’ ‘what?’ ‘where?’ then that word in itself indicates that a question is being asked, for example:

Quid est tibi nōmen? |  What is your name?

Quis est haec puella? |  Who is this girl?

Ubi habitās? |  Where do you live?

Cuius est hic liber? |  Whose is this book?

Quantī cōnstat hoc vīnum? | How much does this wine cost?

[2] Some lines from the Renaissance poet Crotti illustrate another way of asking questions in Latin:

Hicne amor est? hicne est furor? aut īnsānia mentis?

• Is this love? Is this frenzy? Or a sickness of the mind?

Nōlō, volō, atque iterum nōlō, iterumque volō.

• I don't want (it), I want (it), and again I don't want (it), and again I want (it)

Hicne gelū est? hicne est ignis?

• Is this frost? Is this fire?

Note the use of -ne. In grammar, it is known as an [i] enclitic [ii] particle:

[i] Enclitic means that it is attached to the preceding word i.e. hic > hicne

[ii] A particle is a word which has little or no meaning of its own, but which has a grammatical function. Here, it is used to ask a 'yes' or 'no' question.

[Statement] Hic est amor. | This is love

> [Question] Hicne amor est? | Is this love?

Hicne est frāter tuus? | Is he your brother?

Hocne est templum? | Is this a temple?

When used, -ne is attached to the first word of the sentence:

Tūne Rōmānus / Rōmāna es? | Are you a Roman [m] / a Roman [f]?

Estne pater tuus domī? | Is your father at home?

Estne tibi penna? | Do you have a pen? [Literally: Is there a pen to you?]

Note: -ne cannot be used if the sentence begins with an interrogative such as 'quid?' or 'ubi?' since they already convey a question.

Exercise [1]

Here are some food and drink items; practise asking if the person has them. Do not be concerned about the gender or endings of the words; simply become used to asking ‘Estne tibi…?’ ‘Do you have…?’

1. aqua: water
2. lac: milk
3. vīnum: wine
4. cāseus: cheese
5. cārō: meat
6. frūmentum: grain
7. mālum: an apple
8. oleum: oil
9. pānis: bread
10. piper: pepper
11. sāl: salt

Answering yes and no

There are no words in Latin which exclusively mean ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

The idea of ‘yes’ can be expressed by a range of words and phrases. Here are some of them:

ita / ita vērō / sīc / etiam: yes

To express ‘no’ you can use:

minimē: no

minimē vērō: (more emphatic) not at all

Be careful: the word nōn in Latin does not mean 'no' even though it has that meaning in Modern French; nōn means 'not' and makes a verb negative.

Another way to respond to a yes / no question is to repeat the verb, in the positive for "yes" and in the negative for "no".

Estne haec puella Rōmāna? Est. | Is this girl Roman? Yes, she is.

Estne hic puer Rōmānus? Nōn est. | Is this boy Roman? No, he isn’t.

Valēsne? | Are you well?

Valeō, grātiās tibi agō. | Yes, I'm well, thanks [ = Yes, I am, thanks].

Exercise [2]

Answer the following questions either positively or negatively; the vocabulary was introduced in earlier posts.

Estne tibi frāter? | Do you have a brother?

> Ita, frāter mihi est. | Yes, I have a brother.

Estne tibi soror?

> Minimē, mihi nōn est soror. | No, I don't have a sister.

1. Estne tibi fīlius?
2. Estne tibi fīlia?
3. Estne tibi marītus?
4. Estne tibi uxor?
5. Estne tibi equus?
6. Estne tibi vīlla?
7. Estne tibi aurum?

The image shows bread that would be as appetizing as the 1,700 year old egg featured in an earlier post. This bread, incised into eight triangles, was being baked in the town of Herculaneum on the day in AD79 when Mount Vesuvius erupted. Herculaneum was hit by a devastating pyroclastic flow which carbonised the bread. The second image from a fresco shows the same bread in a more edible condition! The third image is from Pompeii, which was also destroyed by the eruption.

• How did the citizen of Pompeii [i] greet the baker and [ii] ask him how he was?
• How did he ask the baker if he had any bread?
• And can you remember from an earlier post how he would ask the baker how much the bread cost?