22.02.24: Expressing possession; expressing negatives

Latin has two ways of saying ‘I have, you have etc.’ but we will look at one using words that you already know:

Quid tibi est? This literally means ‘What is there to you?’ but it translates as ‘What do you have?’ Note: the same phrase can also mean ‘What’s the matter with you?’

[i] Mihi ¦ [ii] est ¦ [iii] equus: This literally means ‘[i] To me ¦ [ii] (there) is ¦ [iii] a horse’ but it translates as ‘I have a horse’.

Tibi ¦ est ¦ liber: (literally) ‘To you (there) is a book’ but translates as ‘You have a book’.

Eī ¦ est ¦ villa: (literally) ‘To him / her (there) is a country estate’, but translates, depending on context, as ‘He / she has a country estate’.

Mihi est amīcus. Eī nōmen est Mārcus. I have a friend. His name is Marcus.

Mihi est soror. Nōmen eī Flāvia est. I have a sister. She’s called Flavia.

And, if you don’t have something, you use the word nōn (not) and place it before the verb.

Mihi nōn est liber. I don’t have a book. (Literally: To me there is not a book.)

Hic liber nōn est mihi. This book is not mine.

Here are some things that [i] you have, and [ii] you don’t have. How would you say it?

[i] You have …

• liber: book
• papȳrus: paper
• penna: ‘pen’ (actually a quill pen; the first meaning of penna is feather)
• stilus: stylus, instrument for writing on wax tablets
• tabula: wax writing tablet

[ii] You don’t have …

• aqua: water
• cibus: food
• domus: house
• pecūnia: money
• vīnum: wine

The images below show [i] the origin of the word 'pen' i.e. 'feather', from which quill pens were manufactured

[ii] 'liber' (book) but the Romans did not have books in the way we have them today, rather they were written on papyrus and bound together in the form of scrolls.