Parentes pueros et puellas bonos mores docent.

Breakdown of Parentes pueros et puellas bonos mores docent.

puella
the girl
puer
the boy
et
and
bonus
good
docere
to teach
parens
the parent
mos
the manner

Questions & Answers about Parentes pueros et puellas bonos mores docent.

Why is parentes the subject of the sentence?
Because parentes is in the nominative plural, the case normally used for the subject. It means parents. The verb docent is also plural, so parentes matches it naturally as the doer of the action.
Why are pueros et puellas in the accusative?
They are in the accusative plural because they are the people being taught: boys and girls. With docere (to teach), Latin often puts the person taught 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?
The Latin noun mos, moris can mean custom, habit, or moral character, and the plural mores is very commonly used for manners, customs, or morals. So Latin naturally says bonos mores where English says good manners.
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.

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