Pater filiae librum Latinum daturus est.

A learner will often want to map the sentence word by word:

• Pater = father

  • nominative singular
  • this is the subject

• filiae = to the daughter / for the daughter

  • dative singular
  • this is the indirect object

• librum = book

  • accusative singular
  • this is the direct object

• Latinum = Latin

  • adjective modifying librum
  • also accusative singular masculine, agreeing with librum

• daturus est = is going to give / is about to give / intends to give

  • a future active participle (daturus) plus est
  • together they form the future active periphrastic

So the structure is basically:

Father + to the daughter + a Latin book + is going to give

Because the daughter is the recipient of the book.

With verbs like do, dare, dedi, datum (to give), Latin usually puts:

• the thing given in the accusative
• the person receiving it in the dative

So:

• librum = the thing being given
• filiae = the person it is given to

English uses to: to the daughter.
Latin often uses the dative case instead of a separate word like to.

Because it is the direct object: the thing the father is going to give.

In Latin, the direct object of an active verb is usually in the accusative case.

So:

• pater gives
• librum is what he gives

That is why you get librum, not liber.

Because Latinum is an adjective describing librum, and adjectives in Latin must agree with the nouns they modify in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• librum is masculine
• singular
• accusative

So the adjective must also be:

• masculine
• singular
• accusative

That gives Latinum.

So:

• liber Latinus = a Latin book
• librum Latinum = a Latin book (as direct object)

Daturus est is a combination of:

• daturus = the future active participle of do
• est = he is

Together they make the future active periphrastic, which often expresses that someone:

• is going to do something
• is about to do something
• intends to do something

So daturus est means something like:

• he is going to give
• he is about to give
• he intends to give

It is not just a simple future like he will give; it often suggests some sense of intention or expected action.

Both can refer to future time, but they are not exactly the same.

• dabit = he will give

  • simple future
  • more neutral

• daturus est = he is going to give / is about to give / intends to give

  • future periphrastic
  • often more vivid or more intentional

So if a learner asks, Why not just use dabit?, the answer is:

Latin has more than one way to talk about the future, and daturus est can add a nuance of intention, readiness, or imminence.

Because daturus agrees with the subject, pater.

The future active participle behaves like an adjective, so it must agree with the noun it refers to. Since pater is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

the participle must also be:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So we get daturus.

If the subject were feminine, it would change:

• mater datura est = the mother is going to give

If plural masculine:

• patres daturi sunt = the fathers are going to give

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show grammatical function.

In English, word order is very important:

• The father gives the daughter the book

In Latin, endings already tell you who is doing what:

• pater = subject
• filiae = indirect object
• librum = direct object

So Latin can move words around for style, emphasis, rhythm, or clarity.

This sentence is fairly natural, but other orders could also work, for example:

• Pater librum Latinum filiae daturus est
• Filiae pater librum Latinum daturus est

The meaning stays basically the same because the cases make the relationships clear.

Yes. By itself, filiae is a form that can be ambiguous.

It can be:

• dative singular = to/for the daughter
• genitive singular = of the daughter
• nominative plural = daughters
• vocative plural = daughters!

But in this sentence, the context strongly points to dative singular, because with do (to give) we expect a recipient in the dative:

• pater = subject
• librum Latinum = thing given
• filiae = recipient

So here filiae clearly means to the daughter.

Because Classical Latin has no articles.

English distinguishes:

• a book
• the book

Latin usually just says librum, and the exact sense depends on context.

So librum Latinum could mean:

• a Latin book
• the Latin book

The context tells you which is more natural.

This is one of the first things English speakers have to get used to: Latin often leaves article-like meanings unstated.

This is a very common learner question. The dictionary forms are:

• pater, patris = father
• filia, filiae = daughter
• liber, libri = book
• Latinus, Latina, Latinum = Latin
• do, dare, dedi, datum = give

And from datum comes the future active participle stem:

• daturus, datura, daturum = going to give

Knowing the dictionary form helps you identify why the forms in the sentence look different.

Because of agreement.

Latinum is:

• masculine
• singular
• accusative

In this sentence, librum is also:

• masculine
• singular
• accusative

So they match perfectly.

The other nearby nouns do not match:

• pater is nominative singular masculine
• filiae is dative singular feminine

Therefore Latinum naturally modifies librum.

This is one of the biggest reading tools in Latin: not just word order, but matching endings.

The form daturus est often suggests more than a plain future. It can imply:

• intention
• readiness
• being on the point of acting

So the sentence can suggest that the father is going to give the book, perhaps with some sense that the action is expected or planned.

That said, the exact shade depends on context. In many situations, a natural English translation will simply be:

• The father is going to give his daughter a Latin book

But grammatically, the Latin form is a little more expressive than a bare future like dabit.

Yes. That is a very reasonable translation.

Depending on context, daturus est can be rendered as:

• is going to give
• is about to give
• intends to give

The best English choice depends on what nuance the context suggests:

• going to give = broad and natural
• about to give = more immediate
• intends to give = stronger emphasis on plan or intention

So if a learner sees more than one possible English version, that is normal. Latin forms often cover a range of meanings rather than matching one English phrase exactly.