Breakdown of Mendacium amicitiam in odium vertit.
Questions & Answers about Mendacium amicitiam in odium vertit.
The subject is mendacium.
It is a neuter singular nominative noun here, meaning the thing that performs the action. A native English speaker may notice that mendacium could also look accusative, because in many neuter nouns the nominative and accusative have the same form. In this sentence, though, it is understood as the subject from the overall structure and meaning.
Amicitiam is accusative singular.
It is the direct object of vertit. In other words, it is the thing being acted upon: the lie turns friendship into something else.
The basic idea is:
- mendacium = subject
- amicitiam = direct object
- vertit = turns
Because it follows in in a phrase of change into.
Latin often uses this pattern:
aliquid in aliquid vertere
= to turn something into something
So here:
- amicitiam = the thing being changed
- in odium = what it is changed into
With in + accusative, Latin can express movement toward something or change into a new state.