Puer agrum parvum metiri non potest, nedum centuriationem facere possit.

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Breakdown of Puer agrum parvum metiri non potest, nedum centuriationem facere possit.

• parvus: small
• non: not
• ager: the field

Questions & Answers about Puer agrum parvum metiri non potest, nedum centuriationem facere possit.

Why is agrum parvum in the accusative?

Because it is the direct object of metiri.

• agrum is the accusative singular of ager = field
• parvum is the accusative singular of parvus = small

So agrum parvum means a small field, and both words are in the accusative because they belong together and function as the thing being measured.

How do I know puer is the subject?

Puer is nominative singular, so it is the subject of the sentence.

Latin often signals grammatical function by case endings rather than by word order. Here:

• puer = nominative singular → subject
• agrum parvum = accusative singular → object

So even if the words were rearranged, puer would still be understood as the one doing or being able to do the action.

Why is the infinitive metiri and not something like metire?

Because metiri comes from the deponent verb metior, metiri, mensus sum.

A deponent verb:

• has passive-looking forms
• but an active meaning

So metiri is the present infinitive of metior, and it means to measure, not to be measured.

This is very common in Latin, and it often surprises English speakers at first.

Why is metiri used after ?