Puella paene clamat, quia canis annulum capit.

The girl almost shouts, because the dog takes the ring.

Breakdown of Puella paene clamat, quia canis annulum capit.

• puella: the girl
• canis: the dog
• clamare: to shout
• quia: because

Questions & Answers about Puella paene clamat, quia canis annulum capit.

Why does puella end in -a here?

Puella is in the nominative singular, which is the form typically used for the subject of the sentence.

So in Puella paene clamat, puella is the one doing the action of clamat.

• puella = girl / the girl
• nominative singular = subject form

This is a very common pattern for first-declension nouns.

Why is annulum written with -um?

Because annulum is the direct object of capit.

The dog is taking/grabbing the ring, so annulus changes to annulum in the accusative singular.

• annulus = ring (dictionary form, nominative)
• annulum = ring as a direct object (accusative)

In Latin, noun endings often show what job a word is doing in the sentence.

Why doesn’t canis change form?

Canis is the subject of capit, so it is in the nominative singular.

Unlike first- and second-declension nouns, some third-declension nouns do not have a very obvious nominative ending. So canis is already the correct subject form.