#quoque

The Latin conjunction quoque, “too” or “also” or “as well,” is a postpositive particle—it goes after the word that it emphasizes. For that reason, it is a lot like the enclitic -que, position-wise. Latin word order is for the most part freer than that of English, but certain words and word elements take particular positions in order to perform their syntactic functions.

Here are some examples of the use of quoque:

Ego quoque ibo. I, too, shall go. (i.e. I myself along with someone else or others.)

Ibo quoque. I shall go as well. ​(i.e. I shall go along with doing something else.)

Hoc quoque scio. I know this, too. (i.e. I know this along with something else or other things.)

Scio quoque. I know as well. (i.e. I know along with doing something else.)

Just like the enclitic -que, quoque does not begin sentences, and so “Also, I did this” cannot be “Quoque, hoc feci.” Quoque is so regularly used as a postpositive particle that the Quoque in “Quoque, hoc feci” would reasonably be mistaken for either the quoque form of the pronoun quisque or the quo with the enclitic -que.

I remember seeing quoque being used like “Quoque, hoc feci” more than once among students of Latin, and then I found myself spending a good part of a minute trying to figure out what “And by which...” or “By each...” means, but finally I managed to realize that “also” or “too” or “as well” was in fact meant.

A good understanding of what postpositive particles do, I think, is important to those who want to improve their skills in writing Latin. I get the impression that the concept of postpositive particles is not much dealt with typically in Latin courses. It is probably the case that not much is said about it other than the use of the enclitic -que.

The Latin word quoque is regularly postpositive--it is placed after the emphatic word:

tu quoque, “you, too”;

Romae quoque, “at Rome, too”;

populi quoque Romani beneficium, “also the approval of the Roman people.”