Pater nescit quid faciat, quia infans flere incipit et mater abest.

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Breakdown of Pater nescit quid faciat, quia infans flere incipit et mater abest.

• pater: the father
• mater: the mother
• quia: because

Questions & Answers about Pater nescit quid faciat, quia infans flere incipit et mater abest.

Why is faciat subjunctive instead of indicative facit?

Because quid faciat is an indirect question: Pater nescit quid faciat = The father does not know what he should do / what he is to do.

In Latin, indirect questions normally take the subjunctive, even when English does not show anything special. So:

• direct question: Quid facit? = What is he doing?
• indirect question: Nescit quid faciat = He does not know what he should do / what he is doing

Here faciat is present subjunctive, 3rd person singular, from facere.

What exactly is quid here?

Quid means what and introduces the indirect question.

It is the neuter singular form of the interrogative pronoun quis, quid. In this sentence, it is the object of faciat:

• faciat = he may do / he should do
• quid faciat = what he should do

A learner might wonder why it is not quod. Here the sentence needs an interrogative word, not a relative pronoun, so Latin uses quid.

What case are pater, infans, and mater?