Thalamus floribus ornatur.

the flower

Breakdown of Thalamus floribus ornatur.

• ornare: to decorate
• thalamus: the bridal chamber

Questions & Answers about Thalamus floribus ornatur.

How do I know thalamus is the subject of the sentence?

Because thalamus is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject.

Also, the verb ornatur is third person singular, so it matches a singular subject: thalamus.

So the basic structure is:

• thalamus = the thing being talked about
• ornatur = is adorned / is decorated

In other words, thalamus is the thing that is being adorned.

What exactly is ornatur?

Ornatur comes from the verb orno, ornare, meaning to adorn, decorate, equip, embellish.

Here, ornatur means:

• is adorned
• is decorated
• literally, is being adorned

Grammatically, it is:

• present tense
• passive voice
• third person singular

A very useful clue is the ending -tur, which often marks the third person singular passive in Latin.

Why is the verb passive here?

The sentence focuses on the room/chamber as the thing receiving the action, not on the person doing the decorating.

So instead of saying: