Serva per scalas in atrium descendit.

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Breakdown of Serva per scalas in atrium descendit.

• atrium: the atrium
• scalae: the stairs
• descendere: to go down

Questions & Answers about Serva per scalas in atrium descendit.

What does serva mean exactly, and why is it the subject?

Serva is the nominative singular of serva, -ae, meaning female slave, slave girl, or sometimes maidservant, depending on context.

It is the subject because:

• it is in the nominative case
• the verb descendit is third person singular, so it matches a singular subject

So serva = the slave girl / the maid as the one doing the action.

Why is there no word for the or a?

Latin normally has no articles. That means serva can mean:

• a slave girl
• the slave girl

and atrium can mean:

• an atrium
• the atrium

You decide from context which English article sounds right.

Why does Latin use scalas in the plural? Is it really stairs rather than stair?

Yes. Latin often uses scalae in the plural to mean a staircase or stairs, much like English stairs is usually plural in form.

So:

• scala = a ladder, staircase step, or singular stair in some contexts