Funus hodie paratur.

Funus is nominative singular, and it is the subject of the sentence.

A good clue is the verb paratur, which is third-person singular. Since the verb is singular, we look for a singular noun that can serve as its subject, and funus fits perfectly.

A learner might expect a more obvious nominative ending, but funus is a third-declension neuter noun, so its nominative singular form is simply funus.

Because the ending -tur marks the verb as passive.

Here is the breakdown:

• parat = he/she/it prepares active
• paratur = he/she/it is prepared or is being prepared passive

So paratur is the present passive indicative, third-person singular of parare.

That is why the sentence is passive in English: The funeral is being prepared today.

It is present tense.

More fully, it is:

• present
• indicative
• passive
• third-person singular

So it describes something happening now or in the current timeframe: is being prepared / is prepared.

In many contexts, English prefers is being prepared to make the ongoing action clearer.

Hodie is an adverb, meaning it modifies the verb rather than a noun.

It tells us when the action happens: today.

Adverbs like hodie do not change form for case, number, or gender. They are indeclinable.

So in this sentence, hodie tells us that the preparing is happening today.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

So all of these are possible in Latin, with slightly different emphasis:

• Funus hodie paratur
• Hodie funus paratur
• Funus paratur hodie

They all mean roughly the same thing, but the placement can shift emphasis.

In Funus hodie paratur, the adverb hodie sits between subject and verb, which is a very natural Latin arrangement.

Not always. Funus can have a range of related meanings depending on context, such as:

• funeral
• funeral rites
• death
• sometimes even corpse

In this sentence, the meaning shown to the learner is presumably funeral, and that is the most natural sense here.

So even if the dictionary gives several meanings, context tells you which one fits best.

Because the subject funus is singular.

Latin verbs agree with their subject in number and person. Since funus is one funeral, the verb must also be singular:

• funus ... paratur = the funeral ... is being prepared

If the subject were plural, the verb would also be plural.

No separate word is needed.

In Latin, the verb ending already tells you the person and number. The ending -tur in paratur tells you it is third-person singular passive.

Because the noun funus is present, Latin does not need an extra pronoun like English it.

So Latin can simply say:

• Funus hodie paratur

where English would naturally need:

• The funeral is being prepared today

The sentence does not say.

This is normal with the passive voice. Latin often uses the passive when the doer is:

• unknown
• unimportant
• obvious from context
• deliberately left unstated

If you wanted to say who is doing it, Latin could add an agent, usually with ab plus the ablative for a personal agent:

• Funus hodie ab amicis paratur = The funeral is being prepared today by friends

But in your sentence, the focus is on the funeral and the action, not on the people doing it.

Yes, grammatically it can.

Latin present passive often corresponds to either:

• is prepared
• is being prepared

In English, is being prepared usually sounds better if the action is in progress right now.
Is prepared can sound more like a general statement or a state.

So in many teaching contexts, is being prepared is the clearest translation, but is prepared is not impossible.

You would look it up under paro, parare, paravi, paratus.

That is the verb meaning prepare.

From that dictionary entry:

• parare = to prepare
• paratur = is being prepared / is prepared

So when you see a finite verb form like paratur, it is useful to work backward to its base verb, or lemma: parare.

Yes, funus is neuter.

That matters mainly when adjectives or pronouns agree with it. In this sentence, there is no adjective attached to funus, so the neuter gender does not change much visibly.

But it is still important to know for grammar. For example, if you added an adjective, it would need to agree with funus in gender, number, and case.

So even though the sentence is short, recognizing funus as a neuter third-declension noun is useful.