Conductor mercedem et pensionem solvit.

and

Breakdown of Conductor mercedem et pensionem solvit.

• solvere: to pay
• conductor: the lessee; tenant
• merces: the rent; payment

Questions & Answers about Conductor mercedem et pensionem solvit.

Why is conductor the subject, while mercedem and pensionem are the objects?

Latin usually shows a word’s job in the sentence by its case ending rather than by word order alone.

• conductor is nominative singular, so it is the subject
• mercedem and pensionem are accusative singular, so they are direct objects

So the structure is:

• conductor = the one doing the action
• solvit = pays
• mercedem et pensionem = the things being paid

Why do mercedem and pensionem both end in -em?

Because they are both accusative singular forms.

That -em ending is very common for many third-declension nouns in the accusative singular. Since both words are direct objects of solvit, they appear in that case.

So:

• merces → mercedem
• pensio → pensionem

A learner often notices the matching endings, and that is a good clue that the two nouns have the same grammatical function.

What does et do here?