Serva caseum in patella ponit.

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Breakdown of Serva caseum in patella ponit.

• caseus: the cheese
• ponere: to put
• serva: the maid

Questions & Answers about Serva caseum in patella ponit.

What case is serva, and how do we know it is the subject?

Serva is nominative singular. In Latin, the nominative case is normally used for the subject of the sentence.

We know it is the subject because:

• ponit is third person singular
• serva is a singular noun that can naturally go with it
• caseum is in the accusative, so that is the direct object instead

So serva is the female slave / servant who is doing the action.

Why is it serva and not servus?

Serva is the feminine form, while servus is the masculine form.

• serva = female slave, maidservant
• servus = male slave, servant

So the sentence specifically has a female subject.

Why is caseum ending in -um?

Because caseum is the direct object, and in Latin direct objects are usually put in the accusative case.

The dictionary form is caseus meaning cheese.
Its accusative singular form is caseum.

So:

• caseus = nominative singular
• caseum = accusative singular