Puella tunicam novam et calceos nigros habet.

The girl has a new tunic and black shoes.

Breakdown of Puella tunicam novam et calceos nigros habet.

• puella: the girl
• et: and
• novus: new
• habere: to have
• niger: black
• tunica: the tunic
• calceus: the shoe

Questions & Answers about Puella tunicam novam et calceos nigros habet.

What does each Latin word mean in English in this sentence?

• Puella – girl
• tunicam – tunic / dress (a kind of garment)
• novam – new
• et – and
• calceos – shoes
• nigros – black
• habet – has

So Puella tunicam novam et calceos nigros habet means: The girl has a new dress and black shoes.

Why is puella in this form and not puellam?

Puella is in the nominative singular case. Latin uses the nominative case for the subject of the sentence – the person or thing doing the action.

Here, the girl is the one who has something, so puella (not puellam) is the subject:

• Puella – the girl (subject)
• habet – has

If puellam were used, it would be accusative (object), meaning someone has the girl, which is not the meaning here.

Why are tunicam and calceos in these forms?

Both tunicam and calceos are direct objects of the verb habet (has), so they are in the accusative case:

• tunicam – accusative singular feminine: a dress / a tunic
• calceos – accusative plural masculine: shoes

In Latin, things that receive the action of the verb (what is had, seen, loved, etc.) go into the accusative case.

Why is tunicam singular, but calceos is plural?

The Latin simply says:

• tunicam – one tunic / dress
• calceos – more than one shoe

Latin allows you to mix singular and plural objects with et (and). So the sentence literally means:
The girl has a new tunic and black shoes.

In English we usually say dress instead of tunic here, but the number (singular vs. plural) is the same as in Latin.

What is habet exactly (person, number, tense, dictionary form)?

Habet is:

• 3rd person – he / she / it
• singular – one person
• present tense – has (is having, right now)
• indicative mood, active voice

Its dictionary form is habeo, habere, habui, habitum – to have.
So habet means he/she/it has, and here it refers to puella (she).

Why is there no word for the or a in the Latin sentence?

Classical Latin has no separate words for English the or a/an. The noun on its own can mean either:

• puella – girl, which you translate in context as the girl or a girl
• tunicam – tunic/dress, which you translate as a dress or the dress

You decide whether to use the or a/an in English based on the context, not on a specific Latin word.

Why does novam follow tunicam instead of coming before it, like new dress in English?

Latin word order is more flexible than English. Adjectives can come before or after the noun they describe.

Here, tunicam novam means new tunic/dress; the meaning doesn’t change if you say:

• tunicam novam
• novam tunicam

Both are correct; Latin speakers often put adjectives after nouns, but they can move them for emphasis or style.

Why is it novam and not novus or novum?

Novam has to agree with tunicam in:

• gender – feminine
• number – singular
• case – accusative

tunicam is accusative singular feminine, so the adjective must also be accusative singular feminine: novam.

Other forms like novus (masculine nominative singular) or novum (neuter or masculine accusative singular) would not match tunicam, so they would be grammatically wrong here.

Why is it nigros and not nigros calceos or some other order?

In the sentence we have: calceos nigros – black shoes. Again, Latin allows the adjective either before or after the noun:

• calceos nigros
• nigros calceos

Both mean black shoes.

The important thing is agreement, not position:

• calceos – accusative plural masculine
• nigros – accusative plural masculine

So they match perfectly in case, number, and gender.

Why is nigros in this particular form?

Nigros is the accusative plural masculine form of the adjective niger, nigra, nigrum (black).

It must agree with calceos:

• calceos – accusative plural masculine
• nigros – accusative plural masculine

If the noun were feminine or singular, nigros would change form (for example nigram tunicam – a black dress).

What does et do in this sentence?

Et means and. Here it simply connects two direct objects of habet:

• tunicam novam – a new dress
• calceos nigros – black shoes

So the structure is:
Puella [has] (a new dress) and (black shoes).

Can I change the word order and still be correct?

Yes. Latin word order is flexible because the endings show the grammatical roles. Variants like these are all grammatically correct:

• Puella tunicam novam et calceos nigros habet.
• Puella habet tunicam novam et calceos nigros.
• Puella novam tunicam et nigros calceos habet.

The basic meaning stays the same: The girl has a new dress and black shoes.
Changes in order can add emphasis or style, but do not usually change the core meaning.

Does tunicam mean exactly dress, or is it something else?

Tunicam comes from tunica, which was a simple garment worn in the ancient Roman world, usually under a cloak or toga. It is not exactly the same as a modern dress, but in many beginner Latin contexts, it is translated as dress to make the meaning natural in English.

So:

• Literal idea: a tunic-style garment
• Usual learner’s translation here: a (new) dress