PRONOUNS

§§140–152 · 13 sections

Pronouns are used as Nouns or as Adjectives. They are divided into the following seven classes:—

  1. Personal Pronouns: as, ego, I.
  2. Reflexive Pronouns: as, , himself.
  3. Possessive Pronouns: as, meus, my.
  4. Demonstrative Pronouns: as, hīc, this; ille, that.
  5. Relative Pronouns: as, quī, who.
  6. Interrogative Pronouns: as, quis, who?
  7. Indefinite Pronouns: as, aliquis, some one.

Pronouns have special forms of declension.

Personal Pronouns

The Personal pronouns of the first person are ego, I, nōs, we; of the second person, , thou or you, vōs, ye or you. The personal pronouns of the third person—he, she, it, they—are wanting in Latin, a demonstrative being sometimes used instead.

Ego and are declined as follows:—

FIRST PERSON
Singular Plural
NOM. ego, I nōs, we
GEN. meī, of me nostrum, nostrī, of us
DAT. mihi (), to me nōbīs, to us
ACC. , me nōs, us
ABL. , by me nōbīs, by us
SECOND PERSON
NOM , thou or you vōs, ye or you
GEN. tuī, of thee or you vestrum, vestrī; vostrum (-trī)
DAT. tibi vōbīs
ACC. vōs
ABL. vōbīs

The plural nōs is often used for the singular ego; the plural vōs is never so used for the singular .

The forms nostrum, vestrum, etc., are used partitively:

  1. ūnusquisque nostrum, each one of us.
  2. vestrum omnium, of all of you.

The genitives meī, tuī, suī, nostri, vestrī, are chiefly used objectively347):—

  1. memor sīs nostrī, be mindful of us (me).
  2. mē tuī pudet, I am ashamed of you.

Emphatic forms of are tūte and tūtemet (tūtimet). The other cases of the personal pronouns, excepting the genitive plural, are made emphatic by adding -met: as, egomet, vōsmet.

Reduplicated forms are found in the accusative and ablative singular: as, mēmē, tētē.

The preposition cum, with, is joined enclitically with the ablative: as, tēcum loquitur, he talks with you.

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive Pronouns are used in the Oblique Cases to refer to the subject of the sentence or clause in which they stand (see § 299): as, sē amat, he loves himself.

In the first and second persons the oblique cases of the Personal pronouns are used as Reflexives: as, mē videō, I see myself; tē laudās, you praise yourself; nōbīs persuādēmus, we persuade ourselves.

The Reflexive pronoun of the third person has a special form used only in this sense, the same for both singular and plural. It is thus declined:—

  1. GEN. suī, of himself, herself, itself, themselves
  2. DAT. sibi, to himself, herself, itself, themselves
  3. ACC. (sēsē), himself, herself, itself, themselves
  4. ABL. (sēsē), [by] himself, herself, itself, themselves

Possessive Pronouns

The Possessive pronouns are:—

FIRST PERSON. meus, my noster, our
SECOND PERSON. tuus, thy, your vester, your
THIRD PERSON. suus, his, her, its suus, their

These are really adjectives of the First and Second Declensions, and are so declined (see §§ 110-112). But meus has regularly (rarely meus) in the vocative singular masculine.

Emphatic forms in -pte are found in the ablative singular: suōpte.

A rare possessive cûius (quôius), -a, -um, whose, is formed from the genitive singular of the relative or interrogative pronoun (quī, quis). It may be either interrogative or relative in force according to its derivation, but is usually the former.

The reciprocals one another and each other are expressed by inter sē or alter ... alterum:—

  1. alter alterīus ōva frangit, they break each other's eggs (one ... of the other).
  2. inter sē amant, they love one another (they love among themselves).

Demonstrative Pronouns

The Demonstrative Pronouns are used to point out or designate a person or thing for special attention, either with nouns as Adjectives or alone as Pronouns. They are:—hīc, this; is, ille, iste, that; with the Intensive ipse, self, and īdem, same;

and are thus declined:—

SINGULAR PLURAL
M. F. N. M. F. N.
NOM. hīc haec hōc hae haec
GEN. hûius hûius hûius hōrum hārum hōrum
DAT. huic huic huic hīs hīs hīs
ACC. hunc hanc hōc hōs hās haec
ABL. hōc hāc hōc hīs hīs hīs
SINGULAR PLURAL
M. F. N. M. F. N.
NOM. is ea id , (ī) eae ea
GEN. êius êius êius eōrum eārum eōrum
DAT. eīs, iīs (īs) eīs, iīs (īs) eīs,iīs (īs)
ACC. eum eam id eōs eās ea
ABL. eīs, iīs (īs) eīs, iīs (īs) eīs,iīs (īs)
SINGULAR PLURAL
M. F. N. M. F. N.
NOM. ille illa illud illī illae illa
GEN. illīus illīus illīus illōrum illārum illōrum
DAT. illī illī illī illīs illīs illīs
ACC. illum illam illud illōs illās illa
ABL. illō illā illō illīs illīs illīs

Iste, ista, istud, that (yonder), is declined like ille.

SINGULAR PLURAL
M. F. N. M. F. N.
NOM. ipse ipsa ipsum ipsī ipsae ipsa
GEN. ipsīus ipsīus ipsīus ipsōrum ipsārum ipsōrum
DAT. ipsī ipsī ipsī ipsīs ipsīs ipsīs
ACC. ipsum ipsam ipsum ipsōs ipsās ipsa
ABL. ipsō ipsā ipsō ipsīs ipsīs ipsīs
SINGULAR PLURAL
M. F. N. M. F. N.
NOM. īdem eădem ĭdem īdem (eī-) eaedem eădem
GEN. êiusdem êiusdem êiusdem eōrundem eārundem eōrundem
DAT. eīdem eīdem eīdem eīsdem or īsdem
ACC. eundem eandem ĭdem eōsdem eāsdem eădem
ABL. eōdem eādem eōdem eīsdem or īsdem

Ille and iste appear in combination with the demonstrative particle -c, shortened from -ce, in the following forms:—

SINGULAR
M. F. N. M. F. N.
NOM. illic illaec illuc (illoc) istic istaec istuc (istoc)
ACC. illunc illanc illuc (illoc) istunc istanc istuc (istoc)
ABL. illōc illāc illōc istōc istāc istōc
PLURAL
N., ACC. ---- ---- illaec ---- ---- istaec

The combinations hûiusmodī (hûiuscemodī), êiusmodī, etc., are used as indeclinable adjectives, equivalent to tālis, such: as, rēs êiusmodī, such a thing (a thing of that sort: cf. § 345. a).

For uses of the Demonstrative Pronouns, see §§ 296 ff.

Relative Pronouns

The Relative Pronoun quī, who, which, is thus declined:—

SINGULAR PLURAL
M. F. N. M. F. N.
NOM. quī quae quod quī quae quae
GEN. cûius cûius cûius quōrum quārum quōrum
DAT. cui cui cui quibus quibus quibus
ACC. quem quam quod quōs quās quae
ABL. quō quā quō quibus quibus quibus

Interrogative and Indefinite Pronouns

The Substantive Interrogative Pronoun quis, who? quid, what? is declined in the Singular as follows:—

M., F. N.
NOM. quis quid
GEN. cûius cûius
DAT. cui cui
ACC. quem quid
ABL. quō quō

The Plural is the same as that of the Relative, quī, quae, quae.

The singular quis is either masculine or of indeterminate gender, but in old writers it is sometimes distinctly feminine.

The Adjective Interrogative Pronoun, quī, quae, quod, what kind of? what? which? is declined throughout like the Relative:—

SUBSTANTIVE ADJECTIVE
quis vocat, who calls? quī homō vocat, what man calls?
quid vidēs, what do you see? quod templum vidēs, what temple do you see?

Quisnam, pray, who? is an emphatic interrogative. It has both substantive and adjective forms like quis, quī.

The Indefinite Pronouns quis, any one, and quī, any, are declined like the corresponding Interrogatives, but qua is commonly used for quae except in the nominative plural feminine:—

SUBSTANTIVE: quis, any one; quid, anything.
ADJECTIVE: quī, qua (quae), quod, any.

The feminine forms qua and quae are sometimes used substantively.

The indefinites quis and quī are rare except after , nisi, , and num, and in compounds (see § 310. a, b).

Case-Forms of quī and quis

The Relative, Interrogative, and Indefinite Pronouns are originally of the same stem, and most of the forms are the same (compare § 147 with § 148). The stem has two forms in the masculine and neuter, quo-, qui-, and one for the feminine, quā-. The interrogative sense is doubtless the original one.

Old forms for the genitive and dative singular are quôius, quoi.

The form quī is used for the ablative of both numbers and all genders; but especially as an adverb (how, by which way, in any way), and in the combination quīcum, with whom, as an interrogative or an indefinite relative.

A nominative plural quēs (stem qui-) occurs in early Latin. A dative and ablative plural quīs (stem quo-) is found even in classic Latin.

The preposition cum is joined enclitically to all forms of the ablative, as with the personal pronouns (§ 143. f): as, quōcum, quīcum, quibuscum.

Compounds of quis and quī

The pronouns quis and quī appear in various combinations.

The adverb -cumque (-cunque) (cf. quisque) added to the relative makes an indefinite relative, which is declined like the simple word: as, quīcumque, quaecumque, quodcumque, whoever, whatever; cûiuscumque, etc.

In quisquis, whoever, both parts are declined, but the only forms in common use are quisquis, quidquid (quicquid) and quōquō.

The indefinite pronouns quīdam, a certain (one); quīvīs, quīlibet, any you please, are used both as substantives and as adjectives. The first part is declined like the relative quī, but the neuter has both quid- (substantive) and quod- (adjective):—

quīdam quaedam quiddam (quoddam)
quīvīs quaevīs quidvīs (quodvīs)

Quīdam changes m to n before d in the accusative singular (quendam, M.; quandam, F.) and the genitive plural (quōrundam, M., N.; quārundam, F.).

The indefinite pronouns quispiam, some, any, and quisquam, any at all, are used both as substantives and as adjectives. Quispiam has feminine quaepiam (adjective), neuter quidpiam (substantive) and quodpiam (adjective); the plural is very rare. Quisquam is both masculine and feminine; the neuter is quidquam (quicquam), substantive only; there is no plural. ūllus, -a, -um, is commonly used as the adjective corresponding to quisquam.

The indefinite pronoun aliquis (substantive), some one, aliquī (adjective), some, is declined like quis and quī, but aliqua is used instead of aliquae except in the nominative plural feminine:—

SINGULAR
M. F. N.
NOM. aliquis (aliquī) aliqua aliquid (aliquod)
GEN. alicûius alicûius alicûius
DAT. alicui alicui alicui
ACC. aliquem aliquam aliquid (aliquod)
ABL. aliquō aliquā aliquō
PLURAL
NOM. aliquī aliquae aliqua
GEN. aliquōrum aliquārum aliquōrum
DAT. aliquibus aliquibus aliquibus
ACC. aliquōs aliquās aliqua
ABL. aliquibus aliquibus aliquibus

The indefinite pronoun ecquis (substantive), whether any one, ecquī (adjective), whether any, is declined like aliquis, but has either ecquae or ecqua in the nominative singular feminine of the adjective form.

The enclitic particle -que added to the interrogative gives a universal: as, quisque, every one; uterque, each of two, or both. Quisque is declined

like the interrogative quis, quī:—substantive, quisque, quidque; adjective, quīque, quaeque, quodque.

In the compound ūnusquisque, every single one, both parts are declined (genitive unīuscûiusque), and they are sometimes written separately and even separated by other words:—

  1. nē in ūnō quidem quōque (Lael. 92), not even in a single one.

The relative and interrogative have rarely a possessive adjective cûius (-a, -um), older quôius, whose; and a patrial cûiās (cûiāt-), of what country.

Quantus, how great, quālis, of what sort, are derivative adjectives from the interrogative. They are either interrogative or relative, corresponding respectively to the demonstratives tantus, tālis152). Indefinite compounds are quantuscumque and quāliscumque (see § 151. a).

Correlatives

Many Pronouns, Pronominal Adjectives, and Adverbs have corresponding demonstrative, relative, interrogative, and indefinite forms. Such parallel forms are called Correlatives. They are shown in the following table:—

DEMON. REL. INTERROG. INDEF. REL. INDEF.
is quī quis? quisquis aliquis
that who who? whoever some one
tantus quantus quantus? quantuscumque aliquantus
so great how (as) great how great? however great some
tālis quālis quālis? quāliscumque ----
such as of what sort? of whatever kind
ibi ubi ubi? ubiubi alicubi
there where where? wherever somewhere
quō quō? quōquō aliquō
thither whither whither? whithersoever (to) somewhere
quā quā? quāquā aliquā
that way which way which way? whithersoever somewhere
inde unde unde? undecumque alicunde
thence whence whence? whencesoever from somewhere
tum cum quandō? quandōcumque aliquandō
then when when? whenever at some time
tot quot quot? quotquot aliquot
so many as how many? however many some, several
totiēns quotiēns quotiēns? quotiēnscumque aliquotiēns
so often as how often? however often at several times