# quamquam hoc nihil sit



## Lambina

Hello all,

I'm wondering if anyone could help me with this sentence? It looks so simple but I don't quite understand what it means.

_quamquam hoc nihil sit _(or_ hoc nihil sit)_


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## bearded

Hello and welcome to this forum!
Can you please mention the source and the context of that sentence?
Without knowing the context, I think the meaning is ''_Although this is nothing_'' or ''_although this is null_''.
Quamquam = although
hoc = this (neuter, this thing)
nihil = nothing
sit = is (literally 'be', as the conjunction 'quamquam' requires the subjunctive mood).


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## Scholiast

Greetings one and all.

bearded's remarks are (almost) all sound. Two observations of my own though. First, this text ('quamquam hoc nihil sit') is not a complete sentence: introduced by the 'concessive' conjunction _quamquam_ ('although'), it is a 'subordinate clause', which requires completion with a 'principal clause'. As in 'Although this may be nothing, _it may equally be important_'.
Secondly, _quamquam_ may, but need not, command a subjunctive verb (here _sit_). It is regularly used with an indicative, particularly where an actual and acknowledged fact, historical or present, is involved (e.g. 'Although my parents were not rich, they made sure I had a good education', or, from Virgil, 'quamquam animus meminisse horret, incipiam'—'although my heart shudders to remember, I shall begin [to tell the story of Troy's downfall]', _Aeneid_ 2.12).

There's possibly more to be said here, but I restrain for the moment my habit of prolixity.

Σ


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## Lambina

Thank you very much, Bearded and Scholiast.

I'm not very familiar with subjunctives (at least IRL) but it helps to be aware they exist.


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## Scholiast

saluete iterum


Lambina said:


> I'm not very familiar with subjunctives


The subjunctive mood is almost completely extinct from both English and Swedish, except in fossilised expressions such as 'If I were you' and 'leve kungen'. But most of its functions in Latin grammar and syntax can be subsumed under the category of the modal auxiliary verbs ('may', 'should', 'would' &c.), which, since Swedish, like English, is by origin and structure a Germanic language, presumably exist still in Swedish too, to express potentialities, mild imperatives, intentions or counterfactuals, as opposed to established or historical facts—the function of the indicative.
Σ


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## bearded

The above posts clearly show the enormous difference existing between a modest amateur (me) and a real latinist/specialist (Scholiast).
I only tried to provide a simple and literal translation of the sentence proposed (and should have specified that _quamquam _usually commands the indicative mood, although not in this case), whereas S. knows and is in a position to mention/expound all grammar details and literary features and connections.


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## Scholiast

saluete de nouo!

Barbatus noster (# 6) et modestiora de facultatibus suis scripsit, et de meis amabiliora, quam debita essent.

Σ


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## bearded

Veritatem tantum scripsi!


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