Latin Grammarnōnne

īdem, eadem, idem

nēmo

(Grammar 3C, pp. 173-74)

nōnne

nōnne Languages typically have ways to

indicate that a yes or a no answer is expected when a question is asked.

These questions in English expect a yes answer:

Don’t you like pizza?

You like pizza, don’t you?

tag question

nōnne In Latin, nōnne is put at the beginning of a

sentence that expects a yes answer

nōnne mē amās?

Don’t you love me?

Surely you love me?

You love me, don’t you?

tag questions… Yes—No—Yes

You love me, don’t you? Yes, I do.

Yes No Yes

tag questions… Yes—No—Yes

You will come, won’t you? Yes, I will.

Yes No Yes

nōnnenōnne Bacchidem uīdistī?

You saw Bacchis, didn’t you? (Yes, I did)

YesYes No

īdem, eadem, idem

īdem, eādem, idem

The latin word for the same is īdem, eadem, idem. In English, we think of the word same as an

adjective. In Latin, it is treated as a demonstrative, and is

a fifth Latin demonstrative.1. hic, haec, hoc

2. iste, ista, istud

3. ille, illa, illud

4. is, ea, id

5. īdem, eadem, idem

īdem, eadem, idem It’s easy to form.

Unfortunately, the nominative singular just has to be memorized:

īdem, eadem, idem The remaining forms are just the forms of

is, ea, id, with the suffix –dem added. There’s just one problem…

īdem, eadem, idem Romans didn’t like the combination –md- So, wherever you would wind up with –md-

from adding -dem to is, ea, id, the –md- changes to –nd-.

eum + dem = eundem

eam + dem = eandem

eōrum + dem = eōrundem

eārum + dem = eārundem

īdem, eadem, idem

singular plural

īdem eadem idem eīdem eaedem eadem

eundem eandem idem eōsdem eōsdem eadem

eiusdem eiusdem eiusdem eōrundem eārundem eōrundem

eīdem eīdem eīdem eīsdem eīsdem eīsdem

eōdem eādem eōdem eīsdem eīsdem eīsdem

nēmo

nēmo = no one, nobody How do you say no one in Latin? The easiest thing to do is to use

nūllus, -a, -um

nullus = no one

nēmo But the Romans actually preferred to use the

word nēmo.

nē + homo = nēmo

nēmo nēmō exists only in the singular, but it

declines just like the regular third-declension consonant-stem homo, hominis, m. & f.

homo nēmo

hominem nēminem

hominis nēminis

hominī nēminī

homine nēmine

nēmo In the genitive and ablative, Latin tends to use

forms of nūllus, -a, -um instead of nēmo.

nēmo

nēminem

nullīus (nēminis)

nēminī

nūllō (nēmine)