Why is quam used and not quem?

Nojuzav

New Member

Location:
United States
Hello, another day of lingua latina.

In this sentence "Tiberis fluvius nōn tam longus est quam fluvius Padus."

The use of "quam" is been used. Why not "Quem"? Does the feminine version hold a different meaning? Who is quam referring too? Not "fluvius" since its a masculine. In the paragraph below, "quam" seems to question "via", both feminine version.

Here is a snipet before which might help with clarity.

"Via Latīna nōn tam longa est quam via Appia. Quam longa est via Flāminia? Neque ea tam longa est quam via Appia. Tiberis fluvius nōn tam longus est quam fluvius Padus."
 

Nojuzav

New Member

Location:
United States
quam is not a relative pronoun here, but a correlative adverb.

tam longus quam ... = as long as
Does it change form or remain the same forever? Does quam in that form above have many use cases? Is it common to see it as that or a rare instances?

I confused it for the pronoun, which reminds me there will be many individual words with different meaning and uses.

I had to look up what that was. Seems it correlates 1 idea to another idea thats represented by the action.

"In cubiculõ meõ õstium magnum quam portam est."
 
B

Bitmap

Guest

Does it change form or remain the same forever? Does quam in that form above have many use cases? Is it common to see it as that or a rare instances?
The correlation between tam and quam meaning "as/so <adjective> as ..." is rather common. Quam can also be a question word modifying adjectives: quam longus fluvius est? = How long is the river? (that's essentially the same function, just with a different translation).

It always appears in this case. There are quite a number of adverbs that I would call "frozen accusatives", and you will probably encounter more of them. You will find, for example, that quod cannot only be a relative neuter pronoun, but it can also mean "because" or "that".

Such individual meanings usually also have individual dictionary entries:

I had to look up what that was. Seems it correlates 1 idea to another idea thats represented by the action.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
There are quite a number of adverbs that I would call "frozen accusatives"
That's true; however quod in the "because" or "that" meaning is a conjunction rather than an adverb.
 
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