Breakdown of Agrimensor libellam diligenter spectat.
Questions & Answers about Agrimensor libellam diligenter spectat.
Agrimensor is nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of the sentence.
A learner can often identify the subject in Latin by asking:
- Who is doing the action?
Here, the action is spectat (looks at / observes), and agrimensor is the one doing it.
Also, the verb spectat is third person singular, so it matches a singular subject such as agrimensor.
Because libellam is accusative singular, the case used for the direct object.
The direct object is the thing being looked at. In this sentence, the surveyor is looking at the libella, so that noun must be in the accusative:
- nominative: libella
- accusative: libellam
So the ending -am tells you this is a first-declension feminine noun in the accusative singular.
Diligenter is an adverb. It describes how the action is done.
So it tells us how the surveyor looks at the libella:
- carefully
- diligently
- attentively
A useful pattern to remember is:
- adjective: diligens = careful, diligent
- adverb: diligenter = carefully, diligently