Mater puellae ficum dat.

Mother gives the girl a fig.

Breakdown of Mater puellae ficum dat.

• puella: the girl
• mater: the mother
• dare: to give
• ficum: the fig

Questions & Answers about Mater puellae ficum dat.

How do I know mater is the subject?

Because mater is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of the sentence.

So in Mater puellae ficum dat, mater is the one doing the action, and dat is a 3rd-person singular verb, which matches mother gives.

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Why is puellae translated as to the girl?

Here puellae is dative singular. The dative case is often used for the recipient of something, especially with verbs like dat = gives.

So:

• mater = mother
• ficum = a fig
• puellae = to the girl

English uses the separate word to; Latin often uses a case ending instead.

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Could puellae mean something else?

Yes. Puellae is one of those forms that can be ambiguous by itself. It can be:

• dative singular = to/for the girl
• genitive singular = of the girl
• nominative plural = girls

So, in isolation, Mater puellae ficum dat could potentially be understood in more than one way. If the meaning has already been given to you, then you know that is intended as here.