Some questions ask for confirmation or rejection of a statement, but most questions are in pursuit of specific information. The sort of information requested determines the interrogative (i.e., question word) employed. For example, “why?” looks for “because,” “which?” wants an adjective, and so on. Latin is rich in question words. Here is a table of them along with the types of responses you can expect:

Table 16-1 Questions and Responses

Interrogative	Response
cur? (why?)	quod or quia (because) or a cum clause, or a participial phrase
quare? (with respect to what? why?)	quod or quia (because) or a cum clause, or a participial phrase
quot? (how many?)	tot (so many) or a number
quomodo? (by what method? how?)	an infinite number of ways to respond
ubi? (where?)	ibi (there) or hī c (here), or a place in the ablative with preposition, or in the locative
unde? (from where?)	inde (from there) or hunc (from here), or a place in the ablative (with or without preposition)
quī ? (where to?)	eī (to that place), hū c (to this place), or a place in the accusative (with or without preposition)
quandī ? (when?)	a time or date
qualis, -e?* (what kind?)	talis, -e (such a kind) or an adjective
quantus, -a, -um? (how much/big?)	tantus, -a, -um (so much/big) or an adjective
quantī , -ae, -a? (how many?)	tantī , -ae, -a (so many) or a number, or an adjective
quotus, -a, -um? (which? [in number])	prī mus (first), secundus (second), etc.
quotiens (how often? how many times?)	totiens (so often, so many times)
quis, quid (who? what?)**	a noun
quī , quae, quod _____ ?**	an adjective (with or without the repetition of that noun)
(which _____?)

* N.B. (Nota bene): qualis/talis, quantus/tantus, and quantī -/tantīare adjectives, which is why they seek adjectives in response.

** N.B.: quis and quīrequire separate consideration.

The English question words “whither” (“to what place?”), “whence” (“from what place?”), and “where” (“in what place”) have corresponding answers, too. From the speaker's vantage point, motion toward him is “hither,” and motion toward a place distant from him is “thither.” Likewise, “hence” shows motion away from the speaker, and “thence” is motion away from a place not near him. Only the words “where,” “here,” and “there” (i.e., place where) survive. To get the ideas of motion toward or motion away from in modern English, the prepositions “to” and “from” are added to “where.”

Asking Who and What

The Latin interrogative pronouns quis, quid ask for nouns. Their declension is one that you should immediately recognize. The only real differences in form between the interrogative pronoun and the relative pronoun are in the singular — the same forms serve for both the masculine and the feminine. In the plural, the forms are identical.

Table 16-2 Declension of the Interrogative quis, quid

The case of the pronoun heading a question anticipates the case of the answer. The number anticipates the answer to be singular or plural.

Nominative: Quis puerīs cū rā bit? (Who will take care of the boys?) Antī nia. (Antonia.)

Genitive: Cuius filius es? (Whose son are you?) Marcī. (Mark's.)

Dative: Cui pecuniam dedē runt? (To whom did they give the money?) Iuliae. (To Julia.)

Accusative: Quīs vī distī ? (Whom did you see?) Multīs servī s. (Many slaves.)

Ablative: Quī occisus est? (By what was he killed?) Sagittā. (By an arrow.)

Ablative: A quī occisus est? (By whom was he killed?) A Hermanī. (By Herman.)

Asking Which

The forms of the interrogative adjective are identical to those of the relative pronoun. Since it is an adjective, it agrees with a noun. And since it is an interrogative adjective, it asks for another adjective.