Soccus mimo placet.

The comic slipper pleases the mime.

Breakdown of Soccus mimo placet.

• placere: to please
• soccus: the comic actor's slipper
• mimus: the mime; comic performance

Questions & Answers about Soccus mimo placet.

Why is mimo not the subject, if the mime is the one who likes something?

Because Latin uses placēre differently from English to like.

The pattern is:

• the thing that is pleasing = nominative subject
• the person pleased = dative
• verb = placet or another form of placēre

So in Soccus mimo placet:

• soccus = the thing that pleases
• mimo = the person to whom it is pleasing

A very literal way to think of it is:

• The slipper is pleasing to the mime

That is why mimo is not the subject.

What case is mimo, and how do we know?

Mimo is dative singular.

It comes from the noun mimus, meaning mime or mime actor. In the second declension, the dative singular ending is often -ō, so:

• nominative singular: mimus
• dative singular: mimō

Here it is dative because placēre normally takes the person pleased in the dative.

How do we know that soccus is the subject?