Breakdown of Scriba verba oratoris celeriter conscribit, et quaestor summam pecuniae rationibus adscribit.
et
and
verbum
the word
pecunia
the money
celeriter
quickly
Questions & Answers about Scriba verba oratoris celeriter conscribit, et quaestor summam pecuniae rationibus adscribit.
Why is scriba the subject, even though it ends in -a?
Because scriba is a first-declension noun that is masculine in meaning: it means scribe or clerk, traditionally a male job title in Latin.
So:
- scriba = nominative singular, the subject
- ending -a does not always mean a noun is feminine
This is a useful reminder that declension and gender are related, but not identical. A noun can have first-declension endings and still be masculine.
Why is verba plural?
Verba is the neuter plural accusative of verbum.
Here it is plural because the sentence is talking about words, not just a word:
- verbum = word
- verba = words
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of conscribit: the scribe writes down the words.
A learner may also notice that neuter nouns have a special pattern:
- nominative singular: verbum
- accusative singular: verbum
- nominative plural: verba
- accusative plural: verba
So in neuter nouns, nominative and accusative are always the same.