Breakdown of Tonsor barbam avi curaturus est.
Questions & Answers about Tonsor barbam avi curaturus est.
Because it is the direct object of curaturus est / curare: it is the thing the barber is going to attend to.
- barba = nominative singular, a beard
- barbam = accusative singular, a beard as the object
So Latin marks what is being acted on with the accusative, where English usually relies more on word order.
In this sentence, avi is most naturally understood as genitive singular: of the grandfather.
So barbam avi means the grandfather’s beard.
A useful thing to know is that avi could also, in form, be dative singular. For a 2nd-declension noun like avus, the form avi can mean either:
- genitive singular = of the grandfather
- dative singular = to/for the grandfather
Here the genitive makes better sense, because beard of the grandfather is a very natural phrase. So learners should notice that the form is technically ambiguous, but the context usually makes the intended meaning clear.
curaturus est is a future active periphrastic.