Romani urbem condunt.

the city

Breakdown of Romani urbem condunt.

• Romanus: the Roman
• condere: to found; store away

Questions & Answers about Romani urbem condunt.

Why does Romani mean the Romans?

Romani is the nominative plural form of Romanus.

• Romanus = Roman (singular, masculine)
• Romani = Romans (plural, masculine)

The nominative case is the case usually used for the subject of the sentence, so Romani tells you who is doing the action.

So here, Romani is the subject: the Romans.

Why is urbem spelled that way instead of urbs?

Because urbem is in the accusative singular.

The dictionary form is:

• urbs = city (subject form, nominative singular)

But in this sentence, city is the direct object — it is what the Romans are founding/building. Latin marks that with the accusative case:

• urbs → urbem

So:

• urbs = a city / the city as subject
• urbem = a city / the city as object

How do I know that Romani is the subject and urbem is the object?