Questions & Answers about Mater oculos eius laudat.
How do we know that mater is the subject and oculos is the object?
Latin uses word endings (cases) rather than word order to show who does what to whom.
- mater is in the nominative singular. The nominative is the case normally used for the subject of the verb.
- oculos is in the accusative plural. The accusative is the case normally used for the direct object of the verb.
So even if you rearranged the words (e.g. oculos mater eius laudat), the endings would still tell you that mater is the one doing the praising and oculos are what is being praised.
Why is it oculos and not oculi?
Because oculos is the correct form for “eyes” as the direct object.
The noun oculus, oculī (eye) is a second-declension masculine noun:
- Nominative singular: oculus – “(the) eye” (as subject)
- Accusative singular: oculum – “(the) eye” (as object)
- Nominative plural: oculī – “(the) eyes” (as subject)
- Accusative plural: oculōs – “(the) eyes” (as object)
Here, “eyes” are being praised, so they are the direct object → accusative plural oculōs.
What exactly does eius mean here?
eius is a possessive genitive form of is, ea, id (he, she, it).
- means , usually translated as .