Lucia menda diligentius quam Marcus corrigit.

Marcus

Breakdown of Lucia menda diligentius quam Marcus corrigit.

• quam: than
• mendum: the mistake
• corrigere: to correct

Questions & Answers about Lucia menda diligentius quam Marcus corrigit.

What is the grammatical role of each word in Lucia menda diligentius quam Marcus corrigit?

• Lucia = the subject, in the nominative case
• menda = the direct object, mistakes
• diligentius = a comparative adverb, more carefully or more diligently
• quam = than
• Marcus = the subject of the comparison clause
• corrigit = corrects

So the structure is basically:

Lucia [corrigit] menda diligentius quam Marcus corrigit

That is, Lucia corrects mistakes more carefully than Marcus does.

Why is menda used for mistakes? Shouldn't a direct object have a different ending?

Menda is the accusative plural of mendum, a neuter second-declension noun meaning mistake or fault.

For neuter nouns in Latin:

• nominative singular: often -um
• accusative singular: also -um
• nominative plural: -a
• accusative plural: also -a

So:

• mendum = mistake
• menda = mistakes

Even though menda ends in -a, here it is not feminine singular. It is neuter plural, and it works perfectly as the direct object.