Meaning of num | Babel Free

Definitions

1. a particle usually expecting a negation, such as: Is it? It isn’t, is it?
   not-comparable
2. whether
   not-comparable
3. now (only in the phrase etiam num)
   not-comparable

Equivalents

Examples

“Num Sparta īnsula est? — Nōn est īnsula.”

Sparta is not an island, is it? — It's not an island.

“Num igitur hōrum senectūs miserābilis fuit, quī sē agrī cultiōne oblectābant?”

Was the old age of these men then miserable — men who found such delight in the tilling of their land? [On the contrary, these distinguished elders enjoyed life on their country estates.]

““Num flētū ingemuit nostrō? Num lūmina flexit?”

“Was he troubled by our tears? Did he [even] turn his eyes [to notice]? Has he been taken [by love and] shed tears, or pitied the one who loved him?” (The anaphora of the three “nums” marks an ascending tricolon or tricolon crescens. Dido refers to herself using the “majestic plural” or “royal we”: nostro; and Dido uses third person singular verbs to question the actions of Aeneas who is standing before her.)

CEFR level