Calx puellae post longam viam rubet.

The girl’s heel is red after the long road.

Breakdown of Calx puellae post longam viam rubet.

• puella: the girl
• via: the road
• longus: long
• post: after

Questions & Answers about Calx puellae post longam viam rubet.

How do I know that calx is the subject of the sentence?

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

Also, the verb rubet is third person singular, so it needs a singular subject. Calx fits that perfectly.

By contrast, puellae is not nominative singular. The nominative singular of puella would be puella, not puellae.

What case is puellae here, and why?

Here puellae is genitive singular and means of the girl.

So calx puellae means the girl’s heel or more literally the heel of the girl.

The ending -ae can also be dative singular in other contexts, but here the genitive makes sense because it shows possession.

Why does Latin use puellae instead of a word like her?

Latin often shows possession with the genitive case rather than with a separate possessive word.

So instead of saying her heel, Latin can simply say calx puellae, literally the heel of the girl.

Latin could use eius for her, but it does not need to here.