Let’s start this lesson by looking at the first sentence:

nōn sum = I am not.

The presence of nōn gives the meaning “not” and is usually presented immediately before the verb.

Let’s take a look at other examples:

(1) Ego servus nōn sum. (servus = servant)

(2) Nōn sum dictātor. (dictātor = dictator)

The first sentence can be translated as, “I am not a servant”. The “ego” serves as an emphasis, and essentially means “I”. However, the “ego” is not necessary because the “I” is already indicated by “sum”, which means “I am”. The second sentence means, “I am not a dictator”. Notice that in the second sentence the “nōn” is in the beginning of the sentence, but the “nōn” in the first sentence is located towards the end of the sentence. From this, you can conclude that the placement of “nōn” is pretty flexible.

(1) Fēmina est hōmo. (fēmina = woman. hōmo = human being)

(2) Fēmina nōn est hōmo. (fēmina = woman. hōmo = human being)

(3) Agricolae sunt poētae. (agricolae = farmers. poētae = poets)

(4) Agricolae nōn sunt poētae. (agricolae = farmers. poētae = poets)

The first sentence can be interpreted as, “The woman is a human being”. With the first sentence, you can see that “est” can mean “is” and not just “she/he/it is”. The third sentence means, “The farmers are not poets”. The second sentence means, “The farmers are poets” and the fourth sentence means, “The farmers are not poets”. Like “est”, “sunt” in the third sentence takes on the meaning “are” and not “they are”. So the next time you see “sunt”, you’ll have to determine whether this takes the meaning “are” or “they are” by context.