In the thirty-third class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study the morphosyntax of the relative pronoun and of the relative clauses, which include the false relative uses.
Contents
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The relative pronoun qui, quae, quod
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The most frequent relative pronoun is qui, quae, quod. Its declension is very similar to that of other pronouns we already know.
| Masculine sing. | Feminine sing. | Neuter sing. | Masculine plural | Feminine plural | Neuter plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| quī | quae | quŏd | quī | quae | quae | |
| quĕm | quăm | quŏd | quōs | quās | quae | |
| cŭiŭs | cŭiŭs | cŭiŭs | quōrŭm | quārŭm | quōrŭm | |
| cŭĭ | cŭĭ | cŭĭ | quĭbŭs | quĭbŭs | quĭbŭs | |
| quō | quā | quō | quĭbŭs | quĭbŭs | quĭbŭs |
As you can see, the relative pronoun has the same form for the genitive singular in all three genders, and the same for the dative singular. Notice that these are the only forms written with c (they can also be found as quoius and quoi).
In English, the universal relative pronoun is that, but also who is used quite often referring to people.
Syntax of relative clauses
Relative clauses are subordinate adjective clauses: they give information about a noun or pronoun in the same way that an adjective would.
The relative pronoun introduces relative clauses (i.e. subordinate adjective clauses). Their main function is giving information about a word in the superordinate clause (antecedent).
Relative pronouns agree with the antecedent in gender and number, but not necessarily in case. Since the antecedent and the relative pronoun belong to different sentences, their syntactic function might be different, thus being in different cases.
Rosae {quas vidi} pulchrae sunt.
The roses {that I saw} are beautiful.
Rosae {quae spinas habent} periculosae sunt.
The roses {that have thorns} are dangerous.
Types of relative clauses
In most Latin texts, relative clauses are written between commas because of editorial traditions, but we should figure out what kind of relative clause we are dealing with and write the commas in our translation only if they are needed.
There are two types of relative clauses: restrictive (defining or specifying) and non-restrictive (non-defining or explanatory).
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Restrictive relative clauses are those which specify what/which/who the antecedent is, so they are required. They don’t have their own intonation curve, so they are written without commas.
Agricolae qui in agro erant in urbem fugerunt.
The farmers who where in the field fled to the city.
Non-restrictive relative clauses, on the other hand, only explain something about the antecedent, so they aren’t required and they could be written between parentheses. They have their own intonation curve independent from the superordinate clause, so they are written between commas.
Agricolae, qui in agro erant, in urbem fugerunt.
The farmers, who where in the field, fled to the city.
In the first sentence, only the farmers who where in the field fled (farmers who were otherwise didn’t flee), whereas in the second sentence all the farmers (who happened to be in the field) fled.
Most of the times, relative clauses have a verb in the indicative mood, in which case they just have the values already indicated above. However, they can also have their verb in the subjunctive, in which case they have also some adverbial value (usually purpose).
False relative
The false relative or linking relative (among other names) is a structure where we have a relative pronoun not introducing a subordinate relative clause.
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They are easy to spot because the false relative appears right after a period, colon or semicolon. In these cases, they are replacing a demonstrative pronoun in order to better connect semantically the new sentence with the previous one. We translate it as a demonstrative.
Quo cognito…
This being known…
Quibus rebus cognitis…
These things being known…
The interrogative pronoun quis, quae, quid
The declension of the interrogative pronoun is almost exactly the same as that of the relative pronoun. The differences are quis for the nominative masculine singular (mostly for persons) and quid for the nominative-accusative neuter singular (mostly for things).
Quis homo te amat?
What man loves you?
Quis pugnat?
Who fights?
Quid agis?
What are you doing?
After learning the relative pronouns and clauses, let’s practice with some texts!
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