Breakdown of Puer illud e mensa tollit et matri ostendit.
Questions & Answers about Puer illud e mensa tollit et matri ostendit.
Puer is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of a finite verb.
This is one of those second-declension masculine nouns whose nominative singular does not end in -us. Its forms are:
- nominative: puer
- genitive: pueri
So even though it looks a little unusual at first, puer is simply the normal nominative form.
Illud is the neuter singular accusative form of ille, illa, illud, meaning that.
Here it is being used by itself rather than with a noun, so it means something like that thing or that one.
It is accusative because it is the direct object of tollit:
- the boy takes that
And it is also understood as the object of ostendit:
- the boy shows that to his mother