Alexandria urbs clarissima est.

to be

Breakdown of Alexandria urbs clarissima est.

• urbs: the city
• Alexandria: Alexandria
• clarissimus: very famous

Questions & Answers about Alexandria urbs clarissima est.

Why is Alexandria followed by urbs? Aren’t they both nouns?

Yes, they are both nouns. Here urbs is in apposition to Alexandria. That means it gives extra information about the same thing:

• Alexandria = the name of the city
• urbs = city

So Alexandria urbs clarissima est means something like Alexandria, a very famous city, is... or more naturally Alexandria is a very famous city.

Latin often places two nouns next to each other like this when they refer to the same person or thing.

What case is Alexandria, and why?

Alexandria is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence.

The sentence is saying something about Alexandria: Alexandria ... est = Alexandria is ...

Since urbs refers to the same thing as Alexandria, it is also nominative.

Why is urbs nominative too?

Because it is in apposition with Alexandria.

In Latin, when two nouns refer to the same thing, they usually stand in the same case. Since Alexandria is nominative, urbs is nominative too.

So:

• Alexandria = nominative subject
• urbs = nominative appositive noun