Breakdown of Magister mihi librum Latinum dat.
magister
the teacher
liber
the book
Latinus
Latin
dare
to give
Questions & Answers about Magister mihi librum Latinum dat.
What is the grammatical job of each word in Magister mihi librum Latinum dat?
- Magister = the subject: the person doing the action, the teacher
- mihi = the indirect object: the person receiving something, to me / for me
- librum Latinum = the direct object: the thing being given, a Latin book
- dat = the verb: gives
So the sentence is built like this:
subject + indirect object + direct object + verb
Even though Latin word order is flexible, those case endings tell you what each word is doing.
Why does mihi mean to me instead of just me?
Because mihi is the dative form of ego (I).
Latin often uses the dative case where English uses to or for:
- mihi = to me / for me
- tibi = to you
- nobis = to us
So in this sentence, Latin does not need a separate word for to. The ending already shows that meaning.
Why is librum spelled with -um?