Miles portam custodit, et cives eum laudant.

and

Breakdown of Miles portam custodit, et cives eum laudant.

• miles: the soldier
• eum: him
• laudare: to praise

Questions & Answers about Miles portam custodit, et cives eum laudant.

Why does miles end in -es if it means just one soldier?

Because miles is a singular nominative form of a third-declension noun.

A native English speaker may expect -s to mark a plural, but in Latin that is not how it works. In this word, the -es is simply part of the normal singular form:

• miles = soldier (subject, singular)
• milites = soldiers (subject, plural)

So here miles is one soldier, not several.

Why is it portam and not porta?

Because portam is the accusative singular form, used for the direct object.

The soldier is doing the action of guarding, and the gate is what he is guarding. That makes gate the direct object, so Latin uses the accusative:

• porta = gate as a subject
• portam = gate as a direct object

So in this sentence:

• miles = subject
• portam = direct object

What form is custodit?

Custodit is the third-person singular present active indicative of custodire, meaning to guard or .