Servus rogat dominum: “Cuius est hic liber?”

Latin has no articles (the / a / an). A bare noun like servus can mean a slave or the slave depending on context. In a story, once a character has been introduced, English often uses the even though Latin still just says servus.

Servus is nominative singular (2nd declension). The nominative is typically the subject of the clause. So servus rogat = “the slave asks.”

Rogat is 3rd person singular present active indicative of rogāre (“to ask”). The -t ending usually marks he/she/it in the present tense: (he) asks.

In servus rogat dominum, dominum is accusative singular because rogāre takes a direct object: you “ask someone.”
So dominum = “the master” as the person being asked.

Yes. Latin relies heavily on case endings rather than word order. You could see:

• Servus dominum rogat
• Dominum servus rogat All still mean “The slave asks the master,” though different orders can add emphasis.

The colon and quotes are mostly modern editorial punctuation to show direct speech clearly. Classical Latin texts often use less punctuation, but modern textbooks add it for readability.

Cuius is the genitive singular form of the interrogative/relative pronoun qui/quae/quod. In a question it often means whose? / of whom?
So cuius est... = “whose is...?”

Because “whose?” expresses possession, and Latin commonly expresses possession with the genitive case (“of X”).
So cuius liber literally corresponds to “the book of whom?”

Latin often uses sum (est) to express ownership: X est Y = “X belongs to Y / X is Y’s.”
So Cuius est hic liber? is literally “Whose is this book?” = “To whom does this book belong?”

Liber is nominative singular (subject of est). The structure is:

• hic liber (subject) + est
  • cuius (genitive of possessor)
    So: “This book is someone’s.”

Hic, haec, hoc (“this”) agrees with the noun it modifies in gender, number, and case.
Liber is masculine nominative singular, so you use hic (masc. nom. sg.).

• haec would go with a feminine noun (e.g., haec aqua)
• hoc would go with a neuter noun (e.g., hoc bellum)

Here hic functions as a demonstrative adjective because it modifies liber (“this book”). It can also be used as a pronoun (“this man/this thing”) depending on context.

Est can mean both, but context decides. With a genitive of possession (cuius) and a clear subject (hic liber), it’s the “is/belongs to” sense: “Whose does this book belong to?”

They’re both 2nd declension masculine nouns, but in different cases:

• servus = nominative singular (-us is common for nom. sg.)
• dominum = accusative singular (-um is common for acc. sg.)

Latin has several “ask” verbs with different patterns. Rogāre commonly takes an accusative person (the one asked) and can also take an additional element for what is asked (often an accusative thing, an infinitive, or a clause depending on phrasing). In this sentence it’s just ask + person: rogat dominum.

Yes. Cuius? can ask “whose?” for a person (“whose book?”) or for a thing/owner entity (“belonging to which household/library/etc.”), though in most basic contexts it expects a person as the owner.

Common dictionary entries would be:

• servus, -ī (m.) = slave
• dominus, -ī (m.) = master
• rogō, rogāre, rogāvī, rogātum = ask
• hic, haec, hoc = this
• līber, librī (m.) = book
• sum, esse, fuī = be
• qui, quae, quod (with cuius as its genitive singular) = who/which; whose?