Filius et filia in oppido habitant.

Because the subject is filius et filia — the son and the daughter. In Latin, two people joined by et (and) make a plural subject, so the verb must also be plural.

• filius = son
• filia = daughter
• filius et filia = son and daughter
• habitant = they live / they are living

If there were only one person, you would use a singular verb:

• Filius in oppido habitat. = The son lives in the town.

They are both in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of the sentence.

• filius = nominative singular of filius
• filia = nominative singular of filia

Even though each noun is singular by itself, together they form a compound subject, which is why the verb is plural.

A learner may notice that Latin does not always rely on word order to show the subject. Instead, Latin often uses case endings. Here, the nominative endings help identify filius and filia as the subject.

Because after in, Latin can take different cases depending on the meaning.

Here, in means in or inside, showing location, so it takes the ablative case:

• oppido = ablative singular of oppidum

So:

• in oppido = in the town

By contrast, if in shows motion into something, Latin usually uses the accusative:

• in oppidum = into the town

So the difference is:

• in oppido habitant = they live in the town
• in oppidum veniunt = they come into the town

Oppido comes from the noun oppidum, which means town or walled town.

Its basic forms are:

• oppidum = nominative singular
• oppidi = genitive singular

In this sentence, it appears as oppido because it is in the ablative singular after in with a location meaning.

The ending -o is a very common ablative singular ending for second-declension neuter nouns like oppidum.

Latin has no articles — no direct equivalent of the or a/an.

So:

• filius can mean a son or the son
• filia can mean a daughter or the daughter
• oppido can mean in a town or in the town

The exact sense depends on the context. English usually requires an article, but Latin does not.

No. Habitant comes from habitare, not from habere.

This is a very common confusion for English speakers because the words look similar.

• habere = to have
• habitare = to live, dwell, reside

So:

• habitant = they live / they dwell

The form habitant is:

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

Yes. Latin word order is often more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammar.

This sentence is perfectly normal, but other orders are also possible, for example:

• In oppido filius et filia habitant.
• Habitant filius et filia in oppido.

These all mean roughly the same thing, though the emphasis may shift slightly.

In the given sentence:

• filius et filia introduces the subject first
• in oppido gives the place
• habitant comes at the end, which is very common in Latin prose

So the order is natural, but not the only possible one.

Yes, et usually means and.

Here it simply joins two nouns:

• filius et filia = the son and the daughter

It is one of the most common Latin words. In many sentences, et works just like English and.

Latin also has other ways to connect words, but et is the most straightforward one for beginners.

It is a mixed-gender pair: one masculine noun (filius) and one feminine noun (filia).

In this sentence, that does not cause any special problem, because the verb habitant only needs to agree in number and person, not in gender.

So the important thing is:

• there are two subjects
• therefore the verb is plural

If you later use an adjective or pronoun referring to a mixed group, Latin often uses the masculine plural by default, but that issue does not appear directly in this sentence.

A common classroom pronunciation would be roughly:

• Filius = FEE-lee-oos
• et = et
• filia = FEE-lee-ah
• in = in
• oppido = OP-pi-do
• habitant = HA-bi-tant

A more classically oriented pronunciation would keep these points in mind:

• c is always hard, like k
• v is pronounced like w when it appears
• i can sound like ee
• double consonants are pronounced more distinctly

So the sentence would be something like: FEE-lee-oos et FEE-lee-ah in OP-pi-do HA-bi-tant

Yes. The Latin present tense often covers both simple present and progressive present in English.

So habitant can mean:

• they live
• they are living

In most beginner translations, they live is the simplest choice, but both can fit depending on context.