Questions (Latin)

Questions (Latin)

By Mr. Smith

Yes/no questions in English

A yes/no question in English is a re-arranged statement. We move the helping verb to the front:

• ​The boys are hurrying to school.

• Are the boys hurrying to school?​

Open Ended

Try it. Write the sentence "We are writing letters" as a yes/no question.

Yes/no questions in English

If there is no helping verb, we add one: "do/does/did."

• ​The girls see the boys.

• The girls do see the boys.

• Do the girls see the boys?​

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Open Ended

Try it. Write the sentence "Quintus greets Gaius" as a statement with "do/does/did," then as a yes/no question.

Yes/no questions in Latin

Since it does not use helping verbs, Latin makes yes/no questions differently: attach the suffix -ne to the first word of a statement.

• ​Puerī ad lūdum festīnant.

• Puerīne ad lūdum festīnant? ​

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Open Ended

Try it. Write the sentence "Sērō ad lūdum venīmus" ("We are coming to school late.") as a question, and say what it means.

Questions expecting Yes

Sometimes in both languages the speaker asks a yes/no question in a way that indicates "Yes" is expected. In English, this is done by adding "not," often contracted to "-n't":

• Are you angry? (Neutral)

• Are you not angry? or Aren't you angry? (Expected Yes)​

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Questions expecting Yes

Yes-expecting questions in Latin are similar: instead of attaching -ne to another word, the sentence starts with the word nōnne (nōn + -ne).

• Esne īrātus? (neutral)

• Nōnne īrātus es? (expected yes)​

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Open Ended

Try it. Rewrite the question "Dēbeōne labōrāre?" "Should I work?" in a way that expects the answer, "Yes, of course you should!"