Civis iura humana defendit.

Civis is nominative singular, and it is the subject of the sentence.

That means civis is the one doing the action of defendit. English usually shows the subject mostly by word order, but Latin often shows it by the noun ending instead.

Also, civis is a third-declension noun, so its nominative singular does not have the very obvious endings that first- and second-declension nouns often have.

Yes. Civis can refer to either a man or a woman.

It is a noun that does not force you to choose male or female in this form. The verb defendit also does not show gender, so from this sentence alone you cannot tell whether the citizen is male or female.

Iura is accusative plural here, and it is the direct object of the verb.

So it is the thing being defended.

The singular is ius. This is a useful word to remember because its forms can look unusual to beginners:

• singular: ius
• plural: iura

Also, because ius is neuter, its nominative and accusative forms match each other. So iura can be either nominative plural or accusative plural in form, but here it is understood as accusative plural from the sentence structure.

Because humana is neuter plural, not feminine singular.

The adjective comes from humanus, humana, humanum, and it must agree with iura in:

• gender: neuter
• number: plural
• case: accusative here

For a first/second-declension adjective like this one, the neuter plural nominative/accusative ending is -a. So:

• ius humanum = a human right
• iura humana = human rights

This is very common in Latin: a form ending in -a is not always feminine singular.

That is a very good question, because iura could be either nominative plural or accusative plural by form alone.

We understand iura humana as the object for a few reasons:

1. Civis is a very natural nominative singular subject.
2. Defendit is singular, so it matches civis well.
3. If iura humana were the subject, you would normally expect a plural verb, such as defendunt.

So the most natural reading is:

• civis = subject
• iura humana = object

Defendit is the third-person singular active indicative form of defendere.

In context, it means he/she defends or the citizen defends.

One important thing for learners: defendit can be spelled the same in both the present and the perfect:

• present: defends
• perfect: defended or has defended

So by form alone, defendit can be ambiguous. Usually the context tells you which meaning is intended. If your exercise gives the present meaning, then read it as defends here.

Because Latin does not have articles like English does.

So Latin often leaves it to context whether you should translate a noun as:

• a citizen
• the citizen
• sometimes just citizen in a general sense

The same is true for iura humana:

• human rights
• the human rights

English needs articles much more often than Latin does.

Yes. Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings help show what each word is doing.

So these can all express basically the same core idea:

• Civis iura humana defendit
• Iura humana civis defendit
• Defendit civis iura humana

The differences are mostly about emphasis or style, not basic meaning.

The order in your sentence is a very normal kind of Latin order:

• subject: civis
• object: iura humana
• verb: defendit

No. Ius is a broad word.

Depending on context, it can mean things like:

• right
• legal right
• law
• justice
• what is legally or morally proper

In this sentence, iura humana is naturally understood as human rights, but in other contexts ius may be better translated differently.

In Latin, adjectives can come before or after the nouns they describe.

So both of these are possible in principle:

• iura humana
• humana iura

Latin writers choose adjective position for rhythm, style, and emphasis more freely than English speakers usually do. In this sentence, iura humana is a perfectly normal order.

It can feel that way at first, because civis belongs to the third declension, and third-declension nouns are less predictable-looking than first- and second-declension nouns.

Some useful forms are:

• nominative singular: civis
• genitive singular: civis
• accusative singular: civem
• nominative plural: cives
• accusative plural: cives or sometimes civis in older poetry/prose, though cives is what beginners should expect
• genitive plural: civium

So yes, it is a pattern worth paying special attention to, but civis itself is a very common and useful word.