Verum

Latin Learning Latin
1

In Orberg’s LLPSI. Ch. XV he has two schoolboys, Titus and Sextus making a statement and then asking the Magister to agree with them that it’s true:

Nonne verum dicimus, magister?

Orberg doesn’t explain verum here (that I can see) but I’m sure it’s an adverb to modify ‘dicimus’ and, therefore, wouldn’t change or decline in any way. Do I have this right?

2

It’s actually a noun meaning “the truth” – or to be more precise, it’s the adjective “vērum”, meaning “true”, acting as a noun (“a true thing”). In Latin, there are three words that may be translated as “the truth”:

  • Vērum: The truth about a specific fact.
  • Vēra: The plural of vērum. Refers to something rather less specific than vērum. For example, “In illā terrā nōn licet vēra dīcere” – in that land it is not permitted to speak true things.
  • Vēritās: Truth in a broad, general sense. A famous proverb: “In vīnō [est] vēritās”.

The word “vērō” is related (ablative of vērum, but often more like a conjunction), which you will find in Chapter 16 and is used often from thereon. You will also often see the adverb “vērē” used to mean “truly” (“Dīvitēsne vērē sumus?” – “Are we truly rich [or are we just imagining it]?”), though I don’t recall this appearing particularly often, if at all, in Lingua Latina I.

3

Furrykef, thanks for such a comprehensive answer.