Infans matri osculum dat antequam dormiat.

The baby gives mother a kiss before he sleeps.

Breakdown of Infans matri osculum dat antequam dormiat.

• mater: the mother
• dormire: to sleep
• dare: to give
• infans: the baby

Questions & Answers about Infans matri osculum dat antequam dormiat.

What is the grammatical role of each word in Infans matri osculum dat antequam dormiat?

Here is a quick parse:

• infans — nominative singular; the subject of the sentence
• matri — dative singular of mater, matris; the indirect object
• osculum — accusative singular; the direct object
• dat — 3rd person singular present active indicative of dare; gives
• antequam — conjunction meaning before
• dormiat — 3rd person singular present active subjunctive of dormire; goes to sleep / may go to sleep

So the structure is basically:

subject + indirect object + direct object + verb + before-clause

Why is matri in the dative case?

Because matri is the person to whom something is given.

With dare, Latin normally uses:

• the accusative for the thing given
• the dative for the recipient

So:

• osculum = the thing given
• matri = to the mother

That is why Latin uses matri, not matrem.

Why is osculum in the accusative case?