Saying no with non — Classical languages, 4–6 years
See how Latin places the small word non before an action or idea to make it negative. Classical languages, 4–6 years.
Non means “not”
Latin uses non to turn an action or thought around. Currit means “he or she runs”; non currit means “he or she does not run”. The small word changes the message without erasing the action word.
Why make a message negative?
People need to say when something is absent, forbidden or simply untrue. Non solves that problem in a compact way: instead of inventing a new word for every opposite, Latin can put one clear signal in front.
Change one message
Imagine a cat beside a bowl. First say bibit: “it drinks”. Now the bowl is empty and the cat is not drinking. Put non before the same word: non bibit. You have changed “it drinks” to “it does not drink”.
Non is not “nothing”
You may think non means “nothing”, because a negative sentence can make an object or action disappear from a picture. That is a sensible guess, but non means “not”; it changes the truth of a message, while nihil is the Latin word for “nothing”.
Where non appears
Non appears in Latin inscriptions, mottos and old texts when a writer wants to reject or deny something. It can help you read a museum sentence such as non amat, but it does not turn every modern “no” into a Latin sentence.
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