Ex 298 Q 6 English to Latin quisquam versus aliquis

[Thomas3333333]

Salve,

The question asks to translate: "Did you see some one in the country? I did not see any one."

The answer key translates this as : "Vidistine ruri quemquam? Quemquam non vidi"

Should not the first quemquam refering to the "some one" be translated using the indefinite pronoun aliquis instead of the indefinite pronoun quisquam?

Thankyou.

[modus.irrealis]

I'm not certain, but I would tend to agree with you. I found the following in Bennett's New Latin Grammar about indefinite pronouns:

252. ...
2. Aliquis (adj. aliquī) is more definite than quis, and corresponds usually to the English some one, somebody, some; as,—

nunc aliquis dīcat mihī, now let somebody tell me;

utinam modo agÄ￾tur aliquid, oh that something may be done.
...
4. Quisquam, any one, any one whoever (more general than quis), and its corresponding adjective ūllus, any, occur mostly in negative and conditional sentences, in interrogative sentences implying a negative, and in clauses of comparison; as,—

jūstitia numquam nocet cuiquam, justice never harms anybody;

sÄ« quisquam, CatÅ￾ sapiÄ“ns fuit, if anybody was ever wise, Cato was;

potestne quisquam sine perturbÄ￾tiÅ￾ne animÄ« Ä«rÄ￾scÄ«, can anybody be angry without excitement?

sÄ« Å«llÅ￾ modÅ￾ poterit, if it can be done in any way;

taetrior hÄ«c tyrannus fuit quam quisquam superiÅ￾rum, he was a viler tyrant than any of his predecessors.

That seems to suggest that aliquis fits better for "some one". But again, I'm not to sure here but maybe you could post a question about the difference of the two words in the Learning Latin forum since posts there seem to get more responses.