Hortus varios flores habet.

The garden has various flowers.

Breakdown of Hortus varios flores habet.

• hortus: the garden
• flos: the flower
• habere: to have
• varius: varied; various

Questions & Answers about Hortus varios flores habet.

Why is hortus the subject of the sentence?

Because hortus is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of a Latin sentence.

• hortus = garden
• nominative singular ending: -us for this second-declension noun

So hortus ... habet means the garden ... has.

Why is flores spelled that way?

Flores is the accusative plural of flos, floris (flower).

It is accusative because it is the direct object of habet: it tells you what the garden has.

• singular: flos = flower
• plural nominative: flores = flowers
• plural accusative: flores = flowers

So here flores means flowers as the thing being possessed.

Why is it varios flores and not some other form of varius?

Because the adjective has to agree with the noun it describes in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here, flores is:

• masculine
• plural
• accusative

So the adjective must also be masculine, plural, accusative:

• varios

That is why Latin uses varios flores = various flowers.