Questions & Answers about Puer stilum supra mensam ponit.
What grammatical job does puer do in the sentence?
Puer is the subject of the sentence, the one doing the action. It is in the nominative singular, which is the case Latin normally uses for the subject of a finite verb.
So:
- puer = the boy
- ponit = puts / places
Together, they give the boy puts/places.
Why is it puer and not something like puerus?
Because puer is one of the masculine second-declension nouns that ends in -er in the nominative singular.
Its dictionary form is:
- puer, pueri = boy
Not every second-declension masculine noun ends in -us. Some end in -er, such as puer and ager. In puer, the e stays in the stem: pueri, puerum, and so on.
Why does stilum end in -um?
Stilum is in the accusative singular because it is the direct object of ponit.
It is the thing being put or placed.
The noun is:
- stilus, stili =