Canities amico non placet.

Because placeo, placere works differently from English to please or to like.

In Latin, the thing that is pleasing is the subject, and the person who experiences that feeling goes in the dative.

So in Canities amico non placet:

• canities = the thing that is pleasing or not pleasing
• amico = to the friend
• placet = is pleasing

A very literal structure is:

Gray hair is not pleasing to the friend.

That is why Latin uses amico rather than a nominative or accusative form.

Because its subject is canities, and canities is singular.

Even though canities ends in -es, it is not plural here. It is a singular noun, so the verb must also be singular:

• canities = singular
• placet = singular

If the subject were plural, Latin would use placent instead.

Because canities belongs to the fifth declension, where many nominative singular nouns end in -es.

So the ending -es does not always mean plural in Latin.

This is a very common thing for English-speaking learners to notice, because in English an -s or -es ending often suggests plurality. In Latin, you always have to identify the noun by its declension and its role in the sentence, not just by the final letters.

Here, canities is a singular noun meaning something like gray hair or hoariness.

The subject is canities.

You can tell because:

• it is in the nominative
• the verb placet is singular and agrees with it
• amico is dative, so it is not the subject

So grammatically, canities is what does not please.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show how words function in the sentence.

So Latin can move words around for emphasis, rhythm, or style without changing the basic meaning very much.

For example, these could all mean essentially the same thing:

• Canities amico non placet
• Amico canities non placet
• Non placet amico canities

The standard sentence you were given is perfectly natural, but Latin does not depend on fixed word order the way English does.

Often, but not always.

In this sentence, non placet is a straightforward way to negate the verb:

• placet = is pleasing
• non placet = is not pleasing

That is the most natural arrangement here. But Latin can sometimes place non differently for emphasis, especially in more literary writing.

So in this sentence, non is simply negating placet.

In meaning, yes, but not in structure.

English says:

• The friend does not like gray hair.

Latin says something more like:

• Gray hair is not pleasing to the friend.

So the idea is similar, but the grammar is different:

• English like takes a direct object
• Latin placeo usually takes a dative person

This is one of the most important patterns to learn with placeo.

Because Latin has no articles.

English normally requires words like the and a/an, but Latin does not. So amico can mean:

• to a friend
• to the friend
• sometimes simply to his/her friend, depending on context

And canities can be understood as:

• gray hair
• the gray hair
• grayness of hair

The exact English wording depends on context, but Latin itself does not use articles.

Not here.

Here, amico is the dative singular of the noun amicus, meaning friend.

A learner may notice that Latin words built from amic- can be related to friendliness, but in this sentence amico is clearly a noun form, not an adjective meaning friendly.

Its role is determined by the verb placet, which commonly takes a dative person: to a friend or to the friend.

Placet is:

• present tense
• third person singular
• active voice
• indicative mood

So it means he/she/it is pleasing or simply it pleases.

In this sentence, the it is canities, so: canities ... placet = gray hair ... pleases / is pleasing.

With non, it becomes: does not please / is not pleasing.