Breakdown of Parentes pueros et puellas bonos mores docent.
Questions & Answers about Parentes pueros et puellas bonos mores docent.
Why is parentes the subject of the sentence?
Why are pueros et puellas in the accusative?
Why are bonos mores also in the accusative?
This is a very common Latin pattern with docere: it can take two accusatives.
- pueros et puellas = the people taught
- bonos mores = the thing taught
So the sentence literally works like:
Parents teach boys and girls good morals / good manners.
This is called the double accusative with docere.
Does bonos describe pueros et puellas?
No. Bonos goes with mores, not with pueros et puellas.
You can tell because:
- bonos is masculine accusative plural
- mores is also masculine accusative plural
But puellas is feminine, so bonos cannot be describing puellas. The phrase is bonos mores = good manners.
Why is it bonos mores and not bonas mores?
Because mores is a masculine plural noun. Adjectives have to agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case, so the adjective must also be masculine plural accusative:
- mores = masculine accusative plural
- bonos = masculine accusative plural
So bonos mores is the correct agreement.
Why is mores plural?
What form is docent?
Docent is:
- 3rd person plural
- present tense
- active voice
- indicative mood
It comes from doceo, docere, meaning to teach.
So docent means they teach.
Why is there no word meaning to before boys and girls, as in English teach good manners to boys and girls?
Because Latin does not need it here. English often uses to with teach, but Latin usually does not. With docere, the person taught is often put directly into the accusative, without a preposition.
So Latin says literally:
Parents teach boys and girls good manners,
not Parents teach good manners to boys and girls with a special word for to.
Can the word order be changed?
Yes. Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show how the words function.
So these could still mean the same thing:
- Parentes pueros et puellas bonos mores docent.
- Bonos mores parentes pueros et puellas docent.
- Pueros et puellas parentes bonos mores docent.
The exact order can change for emphasis, but the case endings still show:
- parentes = subject
- pueros et puellas = people taught
- bonos mores = thing taught
Why is there no word for the or some?
Because Latin has no articles. There is no direct equivalent of English the, a, or an in ordinary Latin.
So parentes can mean:
- the parents
- parents
and the exact sense depends on context.
Could parentes mean both mother and father, or parents in general?
Yes. Parentes is a plural noun meaning parents, and it can refer either to:
- a particular set of parents, depending on context, or
- parents in general
In a sentence like this, it often sounds like a general statement: Parents teach boys and girls good manners.
More from this lesson
Sign up free — start using our AI language tutor
Start learning LatinMaster Latin — from Parentes pueros et puellas bonos mores docent to fluency
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods.
- ✓ Infinitely deep — unlimited vocabulary and grammar
- ✓ Fast-paced — build complex sentences from the start
- ✓ Unforgettable — efficient spaced repetition system
- ✓ AI tutor to answer your grammar questions