Mater amans infantem consolatur.

Amans is the present active participle of amare, meaning loving.

So mater amans means a loving mother or the mother, loving ... depending on how you understand the phrase in context.

In this sentence, amans describes mater, so it agrees with it in case and number:

• mater = nominative singular
• amans = nominative singular

Because it is a participle, it still keeps some verbal force, so it can also take an object: here that object is infantem.

So amans infantem means:

• loving the baby
• or more naturally in English, who loves the baby

This is a very common question.

The participle amans belongs to the third declension, and in the nominative singular it has the same form for masculine, feminine, and neuter.

So:

• masculine: amans
• feminine: amans
• neuter: amans

Even though mater is feminine, amans does not need a special feminine ending here. Its feminine form in the nominative singular is still amans.

Because infantem is the direct object of amans.

The participle amans still behaves like a verb in meaning: someone is loving someone. The person or thing being loved goes into the accusative case.

The dictionary form is infans.
Its accusative singular is infantem.

So:

• infans = an infant / baby as subject
• infantem = the infant / baby as object

Here the mother is loving the baby, so Latin uses infantem.

It can naturally be understood with both.

Grammatically, infantem is immediately connected with amans, because amans is a participle that can take an object: loving the baby.

But infantem also makes perfect sense as the object of consolatur: she comforts the baby.

So the whole sentence gives the idea:

• The loving mother comforts the baby
• or The mother, loving the baby, comforts him/her

Latin often allows this kind of overlap, and the meaning is clear from context.

Yes, -tur is a passive-looking ending, but consolatur comes from a deponent verb.

A deponent verb has passive forms but an active meaning.

So:

• consolatur looks passive
• but means she comforts, not she is comforted

The verb is consolor, consolari, consolatus sum, meaning to comfort.

So mater ... consolatur means:

• the mother comforts

not:

• the mother is comforted

Because mater is in the nominative case, which is the normal case for the subject.

Also, the verb consolatur is third person singular, so it matches a singular subject:

• mater = mother
• consolatur = she comforts

So mater is the one doing the action.

No. Latin has no articles like English the or a/an.

So mater can mean:

• the mother
• a mother

And infantem can mean:

• the infant
• an infant

You choose the most natural English translation from context.

Either can work.

A participle like amans often has to be translated in different ways depending on what sounds natural in English.

Possible translations include:

• the loving mother comforts the baby
• the mother, loving the baby, comforts the baby
• the mother, who loves the baby, comforts the baby

English often prefers:

• the loving mother comforts the baby

or

• the mother who loves the baby comforts the baby

The Latin participle is more compact than the English wording.

Yes, it can feel adjectival, but it is still a participle.

That matters because a participle can do two things at once:

1. act like an adjective by describing a noun
2. act like a verb by taking an object or expressing action

Here amans describes mater, so it works adjectivally:

• the loving mother

But it also takes infantem as its object:

• loving the baby

So it is not just a plain adjective like bonus; it still keeps verbal force.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

English depends heavily on order:

• The mother comforts the baby

Latin can move words around more easily because:

• mater shows the subject
• infantem shows the object
• consolatur shows the verb

So Mater amans infantem consolatur is perfectly normal.

The position of amans infantem between subject and verb gives a smooth sense:

• The mother, loving the baby, comforts him/her

In some contexts, yes, but it would change the feel.

Since consolatur already means he/she comforts, Latin often does not need an explicit subject pronoun. But amans by itself means loving and does not clearly identify who the subject is unless context already tells you.

By including mater, the sentence makes the subject explicit:

• Mater ... consolatur = The mother comforts ...

Without mater, the sentence would be less clear unless earlier context had already established that the subject was the mother.

Mater is nominative singular, but it belongs to the third declension, not the first declension.

Many beginners expect feminine nouns to end in -a, but that is only true for many first-declension feminine nouns, such as puella.

Mater is different:

• nominative singular: mater
• genitive singular: matris

So it is feminine by meaning and grammar, but its endings follow the third declension pattern, not the first.

Yes.

The word infans, infantis can refer to an infant without necessarily specifying sex. In the accusative singular, both masculine and feminine are infantem.

So the sentence could mean:

• the mother comforts the baby boy
• the mother comforts the baby girl
• or simply the mother comforts the baby

Context would tell you more if needed.