Victoria decus urbi dat.

It breaks down like this:

• Victoria = the subject
• decus = the direct object
• urbi = the indirect object
• dat = the verb

So the pattern is:

subject + direct object + indirect object + verb

A very natural English rendering is Victory gives glory to the city.

Victoria is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of the sentence.

It comes from the first-declension noun victoria, victoriae.

So here Victoria means victory and functions as the thing doing the action.

Grammatically, it could be either, because the form is the same.

However, learners should remember two things:

• Latin manuscripts originally did not use capitalization the way English does.
• A modern text may capitalize Victoria simply because it is the first word of the sentence.

So you should not assume from the capital letter alone that it is a personal name. In this sentence, if the given meaning is Victory gives glory to the city, then Victoria is the noun victory.

Because dat means gives, and with give, the thing being given is usually in the accusative.

Here, decus is a neuter third-declension noun meaning glory, honor, or ornament. Its nominative and accusative singular are both decus.

So even though decus could look like either nominative or accusative, in this sentence it is understood as the accusative singular direct object: the thing being given.

Because Victoria is clearly nominative, and dare commonly works with:

• a subject in the nominative
• a thing given in the accusative
• a recipient in the dative

Also, urbi is clearly dative, which fits perfectly with dat. So the sentence naturally reads:

• Victoria = subject
• decus = thing given
• urbi = recipient

In other words, Victory gives glory to the city, not Glory gives Victory to the city.

Because urbi is the recipient of what is being given.

The verb do, dare often takes:

• accusative for the thing given
• dative for the person or thing receiving it

So:

• decus = glory
• urbi = to the city

The base noun is urbs, urbis meaning city, and urbi is its dative singular form.

Dat is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from do, dare, meaning to give.

So dat means he/she/it gives, or in some contexts is giving. Here the subject is Victoria, so:

Victoria ... dat = Victory gives

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical roles.

Putting the verb at the end is very common in Latin, especially in simple textbook-style sentences. So Victoria decus urbi dat is perfectly normal.

Latin could also rearrange the words, for example:

• Victoria urbi decus dat
• Urbi Victoria decus dat
• Decus Victoria urbi dat

These can all mean basically the same thing, though the emphasis may shift slightly.

Because Latin has no articles like English the or a/an.

So a noun like urbs or urbi may be translated as:

• a city
• the city

depending on context.

Likewise decus could be:

• glory
• a glory
• the glory

The translator chooses the most natural English wording from the context.

Here are the dictionary forms:

• victoria, victoriae — first declension
• decus, decoris — third declension, neuter
• urbs, urbis — third declension

That explains the forms in the sentence:

• Victoria = nominative singular
• decus = accusative singular here, though it looks the same as nominative because it is neuter
• urbi = dative singular

In a classical-style pronunciation, roughly:

wik-TOR-ee-a DE-kus UR-bee dat

A few helpful points:

• v is pronounced like English w
• c is always hard, like k
• u is pronounced like oo
• the stress in Victoria falls on tor
• the stress in urbi falls on ur

So the whole sentence sounds approximately like:

wik-TOR-ee-a DE-kus UR-bee dat