Breakdown of Puella in pariete imaginem navis pingit, et mater imaginem laudat.
puella
the girl
et
and
in
on
mater
the mother
Questions & Answers about Puella in pariete imaginem navis pingit, et mater imaginem laudat.
Why is puella the subject of pingit?
Because puella is in the nominative case, which is the case normally used for the subject of a sentence.
- puella = girl (subject)
- pingit = paints
So puella ... pingit means the girl paints.
A native English speaker often looks first at word order, but in Latin the ending is usually more important than the position.
Why is imaginem written with -em?
Because imaginem is in the accusative singular, the case used for a direct object.
Here, the direct object is the thing being painted and the thing being praised:
- puella ... imaginem navis pingit = the girl paints an image
- mater imaginem laudat = the mother praises the image
The basic dictionary form is imago, but when it is a direct object, it becomes imaginem.
What is navis doing here? Why isn’t it navem?
Here navis is in the genitive singular, meaning of a ship.
So:
- imaginem navis = an image of a ship