Vas fragile non est tangendum.

to be

Breakdown of Vas fragile non est tangendum.

• non: not
• vas: the vessel
• fragilis: fragile

Questions & Answers about Vas fragile non est tangendum.

What case is vas, and how can we tell?

Here vas is nominative singular, because it is the subject of est tangendum.

A beginner might wonder whether it could be accusative, since vas is neuter and neuter nominative and accusative often look the same. But in this sentence the structure noun + est + gerundive points to a passive periphrastic, where the noun is the subject.

So:

• vas = nominative singular
• it is the thing being described as not to be touched

Why is fragile spelled with -e instead of -is?

Because fragile is the neuter nominative singular form of the adjective fragilis, fragile.

This adjective has forms like:

• masculine/feminine nominative singular: fragilis
• neuter nominative singular: fragile

Since vas is neuter singular, the adjective must agree with it, so Latin uses fragile, not fragilis.

What exactly is tangendum? Is it a gerund?

No. Here tangendum is a gerundive, not a gerund.

That matters because:

• a gerund is a verbal noun
• a gerundive is a verbal adjective