3.9 Negation and Joining — Epoché
What you will be able to do Negate a Latin statement with nōn and put it in the right place. Say when Latin uses nē instead of nōn . Join with et , -que , atque , and tell aut from vel . Place the postpositive words enim , autem , igitur second in their clause. Read sentences like Nescio an bona sit. [54] — I don't know if it is good. — without looking anything up. Prerequisites : 3.8 — asking questions. This lesson gathers the small words that hold sentences together. They are unglamorous and they are the difference between reading Latin and decoding it, because they are the words that tell you how one clause stands to the next. Two of them — the choice between two "or"s and the fixed second position of a handful of connectives — have no English counterpart at all. How English says it English Latin What differs He's not here. Hic non est. [1] Latin needs no auxiliary I don't love her. Eam non amo. [2] nōn stands before the verb Nobody does that! Nemo id facit! [3] the negative is inside the pronoun I know nothing about you. Nihil de te scio. [4] the same — nihil is already negative English needs do to negate a plain verb — I don't know , not I know not , except in archaic style. Latin puts nōn in front of the word it negates and stops. That is simpler, and the only thing to learn is the placing. Negating nōn negates the word it precedes. Normally that is the verb, and the sense is a plain denial. But moving it moves the denial: Latin English Vīnum bonum nōn est. The wine is not good. Nōn vīnum bonum est. It is not the wine that is good. Nōn omnēs vēnērunt. Not all of them came. Omnēs nōn vēnērunt. None of them came. Latin has words that carry the negative already. nēmō nobody, nihil nothing, nullus no, numquam never, nusquam nowhere, neque and not. With one of these, no separate nōn is wanted. And when two negatives do meet in Latin they cancel , exactly as in formal English and unlike in colloquial English: nēmō nōn vēnit is "there is nobody who did not come", that is, everybody came. nē is the other negative, and it is not interchangeable. Use nē in commands and wishes, and in purpose clauses — anything that is not a statement of fact. Nē veniās "don't come"; nē id faciat "let him not do it". Lesson 3.10 uses it for prohibitions. The rule of thumb is: nōn denies a fact, nē forbids or averts something. When the subjunctive arrives in the second phase, this distinction becomes a reliable signal of what mood you are in. Joining Three ways to say "and", and they are not the same. Latin Force Example et neutral "and" pater et māter -que close connection — attached to the second item pater māterque atque / ac emphatic "and indeed" pater atque māter -que is an enclitic, like -ne : it attaches to the second of the two things joined and binds them tightly, so it suits natural pairs. Senātus populusque Rōmānus — "the Senate and the Roman people", the S.P.Q.R. of lesson 1.5 — uses it for exactly that reason: the two are one body. And the doubled forms, which English handles with stress: et … et "both … and", neque … neque "neither … nor". Two words for "or", and the difference is real. Latin Meaning Example aut exclusive — one or the other, not both aut vīvus aut mortuus alive or dead vel inclusive — either will do vel aqua vel vīnum water or wine, as you like -ve the enclitic form of vel aquam vīnumve an only in a question Esne puer an puella? [5] English has one word for all four and leaves the reader to work out which is meant — which is why lawyers write "and/or". Latin makes the distinction on the page. vel comes from volō and originally meant "choose": "or, if you prefer". The words that must come second Lesson 3.1 named them; here is the list and the reason to care. Latin Meaning Position enim for, you see (explains) second, never first autem however, moreover second igitur therefore second, usually quidem indeed, at any rate after the word it stresses vērō truly, but second tamen nevertheless second, or first Set against them the connectives that stand first: sed but, nam for, itaque and so, ergō therefore, at but. So Latin has pairs that mean nearly the same thing and differ in where they stand: nam and enim both mean "for", and nam opens a clause while enim cannot. Why this matters for reading rather than only for writing: a postpositive tells you where a clause began. If you meet autem as the second word, the first word was the start of a new clause — which in a long Latin sentence with several clauses is genuinely useful information. Readers of Cicero use these words as punctuation, and so should you. Seen in real Latin Latin English The connective or negative Hic et nunc. [6] Here and now. et , joining two adverbs Hodie, hic et nunc. [7] Today, here and now. the same with a third Non ego, sed tu! [8] No I'm not; you are! nōn then sed , which stands first Ego sum tu et tu es ego. [9] I am you and you are me. et joining two clauses Cur non? [10] Why not? nōn alone as a reply Et cur non? [11] And why not? et opening a sentence Nemo aliquid facit. [12] Nobody's doing anything. nēmō — negative inside the pronoun Nemo verum dicit. [13] Nobody tells the truth. the same, with no nōn Mea mea sunt; tua tua sunt. [14] What's mine is mine, and what's yours is yours. ★no connective at all — the semicolon does it Nihil est, quod dei non facere possunt. [15] There is nothing that the gods may not do. ★ two negatives — they cancel Scio quod nescio. [16] I know that I do not know. nesciō carries its own negative Te non iam amo. [17] I don't like you anymore. nōn iam — "no longer" The fifteenth is the one to study. Nihil est, quod deī nōn facere possunt — literally "there is nothing which the gods are not able to do" — has nihil and nōn , and the two negatives cancel to give a positive: the gods can do anything. English formal usage does the same, and English colloquial usage does the opposite, which is why the sentence reads oddly at first. When you meet two negatives in Latin, multiply rather than