Asking who with quis — Classical languages, 4–6 years
Learn quis, the Latin question word for finding out which person is involved. Classical languages, 4–6 years.
Quis means “who?”
Latin uses quis when the missing answer is a person. Quis est? means “Who is it?” or “Who is he or she?”; the question points towards a person’s name, not towards an object or a place.
Why ask who?
A person can be present without being known, or a name can be missing from a story. Quis solves that problem by asking for the person directly, so listeners know whether to look at a face, a name or a character.
Ask about the picture
A picture shows a woman holding a basket, but her name is not given. First ask quis est? Next, find the label “Cornelia”. Finally, connect the answer: Cornelia est. You have matched the question “who?” with a person’s name.
Quis is for people
You may point to a dog or a cup and say quis, because both can be noticed and named. That is a fair guess, but quis asks “who?”; for a thing, Latin uses quid, and for a place it uses ubi.
Where quis appears
Quis can appear in Latin questions on museum trails, classroom cards and ancient stories when a person must be identified. It works well beside portraits, statues or character pictures, where the answer can be a name.
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