Breakdown of Hospes veniens ianuam apertam videt.
videre
to see
ianua
the door
hospes
the guest
apertus
open
Questions & Answers about Hospes veniens ianuam apertam videt.
What is the main verb in this sentence?
The main verb is videt.
It is:
- 3rd person singular
- present tense
- active voice
- from vidēre = to see
So videt means he/she sees or the guest sees, depending on how you express it in English.
What is the subject of videt?
The subject is hospes.
Since videt is singular, we expect a singular subject, and hospes is nominative singular here.
A learner may notice that Latin usually does not need a separate word for he/she, because the verb ending already tells you the person and number. But when a noun like hospes is present, that noun is the subject.
What case is hospes, and how can I tell?
Hospes is nominative singular, because it is the subject of the sentence.
This is one of those nouns where the nominative singular does not end in -us or -a, so it may not look familiar at first. It is a 3rd-declension noun.
Its forms include:
- nominative singular: hospes
- accusative singular: hospitem
So here hospes is not the object; it is the subject.