Capra herbam in horto edit.

The goat eats grass in the garden.

Breakdown of Capra herbam in horto edit.

• in: in
• hortus: the garden
• edere: to eat
• capra: the goat

Questions & Answers about Capra herbam in horto edit.

Why does edit mean eats and not English edits?

Because edit here is a Latin verb form, not an English word. It comes from edo, edere, meaning to eat.

So edit means he/she/it eats. In this sentence, with capra as the subject, it means the goat eats.

It just happens to look like the English word edit. That is only a coincidence.

What case is capra, and how do I know it is the subject?

Capra is in the nominative singular. In Latin, the subject of a sentence is normally in the nominative case.

The ending -a here is the regular nominative singular ending for many first-declension nouns. So capra is the one doing the action: the goat is eating.

Why is herbam ending in -am instead of -a?

Herbam is in the accusative singular. In Latin, the direct object—the thing directly affected by the action—usually goes in the accusative case.

Here, the goat is eating the grass, so grass is the direct object. That is why Latin uses herbam, not herba.

So the contrast is:

• herba = nominative, grass as subject
• herbam = accusative, grass as object