Questions & Answers about Hic vicus ad forum ducit.
What does hic mean here? Is it this or here?
Here hic means this, not here.
Latin has a word hic that can be:
- a demonstrative adjective/pronoun: this
- or, in other contexts, an adverb meaning here
In Hic vicus ad forum ducit, hic goes with vicus, so it is the adjective this: this street or this lane.
You can tell because it matches vicus in gender, number, and case.
Why is it hic and not haec or hoc?
Because vicus is masculine singular nominative, and hic is the masculine singular nominative form of this.
The basic nominative singular forms are:
- hic = masculine
- haec = feminine
- hoc = neuter
So:
- hic vicus = this street/lane
- if the noun were feminine, you would expect haec
- if it were neuter, you would expect hoc
What case is vicus, and why?