Fama falsa cives terret.

the citizen

Breakdown of Fama falsa cives terret.

• terrere: to frighten
• fama: the report
• falsus: false / falsely

Questions & Answers about Fama falsa cives terret.

Which word is the subject of the sentence?

The subject is fama.

You can tell because fama is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject of a sentence. So fama falsa means false rumor or false report, and that whole phrase is the subject.

What is cives doing here?

Cives is the direct object: it is the thing being frightened.

It is the accusative plural form of civis, meaning citizen. So cives means citizens here.

Even though it comes before the verb, it is still the object because Latin uses case endings, not mainly word order, to show grammatical function.

Why does falsa have that form?

Falsa is an adjective agreeing with fama.

In Latin, adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• fama = feminine, singular, nominative
• falsa = feminine, singular, nominative

So falsa means false and matches fama perfectly.