Serva poculum aqua complet, et infans ridet.

and

Breakdown of Serva poculum aqua complet, et infans ridet.

• aqua: the water
• ridere: to laugh
• infans: the baby

Questions & Answers about Serva poculum aqua complet, et infans ridet.

How can I tell what each noun is doing in Serva poculum aqua complet?

Latin usually shows a noun’s job by its case ending, not mainly by word order.

In this clause:

• serva is nominative singular: the subject
• poculum is accusative singular here: the direct object
• aqua is ablative singular: by/with water, expressing means or material

So Latin is not relying on English-style subject-verb-object order alone. The endings are doing most of the work.

How do I know poculum is the object, since neuter nouns in -um can be nominative too?

That is a very good beginner question.

With second-declension neuter nouns, the nominative singular and accusative singular are the same. So poculum could be either form by shape alone.

You know it is the object here because:

• serva is clearly nominative, so it is the subject
• aqua is ablative
• the verb complet needs something that is being filled

So the sentence structure and the other case forms show that poculum is the thing being filled.

Why is it aqua, not aquam?

Because aqua here is not the direct object. It is in the ablative singular.