Questions & Answers about Magistra eis libros dat.
How do we know who is doing the action in Magistra eis libros dat?
In Latin, the subject is usually in the nominative case.
- Magistra is nominative singular (feminine), so it is the subject: “the (female) teacher” is doing the action.
- The verb dat (“gives”) is 3rd person singular and agrees with magistra.
So we know magistra is the one who gives, not eis or libros.
What case is magistra, and how can I tell?
Magistra is nominative singular (first declension, feminine).
You can tell because:
- First-declension feminine nominative singular often ends in -a (e.g. puella, magistra, terra).
- In a basic sentence, the nominative form is the default subject form.
So magistra = “(the) teacher” as the subject of the verb.
What does eis mean here, and what case is it?
In this sentence, eis means “to them.”
It is:
- Dative plural of the 3rd-person pronoun (is, ea, id = “he, she, it; they”).
- The dative case often marks the indirect object, the person to whom or for whom something is given, shown, told, etc.