Puella vestem albam habet, puer vestem nigram habet.

The girl has a white dress, the boy has a black garment.

Breakdown of Puella vestem albam habet, puer vestem nigram habet.

• puella: the girl
• puer: the boy
• vestis: the garment
• albus: white
• habere: to have
• niger: black

Questions & Answers about Puella vestem albam habet, puer vestem nigram habet.

Why is vestem used instead of vestis?

Latin changes the ending of a noun depending on its function in the sentence (this is case).

• Vestis is the nominative singular form (used mainly for the subject).
• Vestem is the accusative singular form (used mainly for the direct object).

In this sentence, the dress/garment is what is had (the thing possessed), so it is a direct object, and therefore Latin uses vestem, not vestis:
Puella vestem albam habet = The girl has a white dress.

Why do albam and nigram end in -am?

Adjectives in Latin must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender (masculine/feminine/neuter)
• number (singular/plural)
• case (nominative/accusative/etc.)

The noun vestem is:

• feminine
• singular
• accusative

So the adjectives albus, -a, -um (white) and niger, nigra, nigrum (black) must also be feminine singular accusative:

• albam (fem. acc. sg.)
• nigram (fem. acc. sg.)

Hence vestem albam, vestem nigram.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a”?

Latin has no separate words for definite or indefinite articles (no the, a, or an).

Whether you translate puella vestem habet as:

• the girl has a dress
• the girl has the dress
• a girl has a dress

depends on the context, not on any extra word in Latin. The noun puella alone can cover all those English possibilities.

Does word order matter? Why is it Puella vestem albam habet and not Puella habet vestem albam?

Latin word order is much freer than English, because endings show who is doing what.

All of these are grammatically correct and mean essentially the same thing:

• Puella vestem albam habet.
• Puella habet vestem albam.
• Vestem albam puella habet.

The usual neutral order is often Subject – Object – Verb (SOV), as in the original sentence. Moving words around can change emphasis, but not the basic meaning.

Can the adjectives (albam, nigram) go before the nouns instead of after?

Yes. Latin adjectives can come before or after the noun, and both are normal.

So you could say:

• Puella vestem albam habet.
• Puella albam vestem habet.

Both mean The girl has a white dress. Position often affects style or emphasis, but not correctness. Many beginners’ examples put adjectives after the noun, but Latin authors vary their placement a lot.

Why do we use habet and not est for “has”?

Habet comes from habēre, which means “to have, to hold, to possess.”

• Puella vestem habet = The girl has a dress.

Est comes from esse (“to be”) and usually means “is”:

• Puella laeta est = The girl is happy.

In Latin, you generally express possession with habēre, not with esse.

Why is the boy puer and not something like puerus?

Puer is simply the regular nominative singular form of that noun.

It belongs to the second declension, where many masculine nouns end in -us (e.g. servus, amicus), but a small group (including puer, vir) end in -er in the nominative. Their dictionary form is:

• puer, puerī (boy)
• vir, virī (man)

So puer is the correct subject form: Puer vestem nigram habet = The boy has a black dress/garment.

Can the second habet be left out?

Yes, Latin can omit a repeated verb when it is clearly understood. You might see:

• Puella vestem albam, puer vestem nigram habet.

The idea is: The girl [has] a white dress, the boy has a black dress. The first habet is understood from the second one. However, the version with both verbs stated (habet, puer … habet) is also completely correct and very clear for learners.

Where would I put non if I want to say “does not have”?

The usual position is before the verb:

• Puella vestem albam non habet.
  = The girl does not have a white dress.

You could also say:

• Puella non vestem albam habet.

This is possible, but placing non directly before habet is the most straightforward for beginners and the most common neutral pattern.

How do I know that habet goes with puella or puer, and not with vestem?

Latin verbs agree with their subject in person and number, not with the object.

• Puella and puer are nominative singular → they can be subjects.
• Vestem is accusative singular → it is a direct object, not a subject.
• Habet is 3rd person singular → “he/she/it has.”

So puella … habet and puer … habet are the natural pairs:
The girl has … / The boy has …

Why are vestem, albam, and nigram feminine when puer is masculine?

The adjectives albam and nigram agree with vestem, not with puer.

• Vestis, vestis is a feminine noun.
• Its accusative singular is vestem.
• Therefore the adjectives must also be feminine accusative singular: albam, nigram.

The gender of puer (masculine) is irrelevant to those adjectives, because they do not describe the boy; they describe the dress/garment.

Could I join the two parts with et instead of a comma?

Yes. You could write:

• Puella vestem albam habet et puer vestem nigram habet.

This is perfectly correct and perhaps even clearer for a beginner:
The girl has a white dress and the boy has a black dress.

Latin often uses just a comma (or no conjunction at all) between parallel clauses, but et (“and”) is always safe and clear.