Manceps bonorum emptionem parat.

to prepare

Breakdown of Manceps bonorum emptionem parat.

• bonorum emptio: the purchase of an insolvent estate as a whole
• manceps: the purchaser or contractor at a public sale

Questions & Answers about Manceps bonorum emptionem parat.

Which word is the subject of the sentence?

The subject is manceps.

You can tell because:

• manceps is in the nominative singular
• parat is 3rd person singular
• the subject and verb therefore match: manceps ... parat = the buyer/contractor prepares ...

So the basic skeleton is:

• manceps = subject
• parat = verb
• emptionem = direct object

What case is manceps, and what kind of noun is it?

Manceps is nominative singular.

It is a 3rd-declension noun. Its dictionary form is usually:

• manceps, mancipis

So even though the nominative ends in -s, its stem is mancip-.

This is one reason Latin can feel unfamiliar to English speakers: the nominative form does not always clearly show the stem. You often need the genitive form from the dictionary to know how the noun declines.

Why is emptionem in the accusative?

Because it is the direct object of parat.

The verb parare can take a direct object, and here the thing being prepared or arranged is emptionem.

So:

• parat = prepares / arranges
• emptionem = the purchase

Grammatically, emptionem is the thing affected by the action, so it appears in the accusative singular.