Interrogative versus Relative Pronouns

Discussion in 'Lingua Latina (Latin)' started by Ackbeet, Jun 19, 2013.

  1. Ackbeet New Member

    Houston, TX
    American English
    I've got a question about interrogative/relative pronouns of the quis variety. I have a chart that says quis/quis/quid are the s. nom. interrogative m/f/n pronouns, and that qui/quae/quod are the s. nom. relative m/f/n pronouns. Is that correct? Assuming it is, how can I tell which pronoun to use in a question/answer pair?

    This example goes on (see below). Here "quis" refers to "servus", and is hence m. They've used an interrogative pronoun. But the next sentence pair is what puzzles me:
    Why are they using relative pronouns now? Is it because, in the second sentence, the qui introduces a relative clause?
  2. CapnPrep Senior Member

    In your second example, qui is an interrogative adjective that goes with servus: "which servant?". If you want to translate the pronoun "who?" with no accompanying noun, you should (usually) use quis.

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