Nos aviam post scholam visere volumus.

Breakdown of Nos aviam post scholam visere volumus.

nos
we
schola
the school
velle
to want
post
after
avia
the grandmother
visere
to visit

Questions & Answers about Nos aviam post scholam visere volumus.

Why is nos used here? Doesn’t volumus already mean we want?

Yes. In Latin, the ending of volumus already tells you the subject is we, so nos is not required.

Latin often leaves subject pronouns out unless they are being emphasized or contrasted. So:

  • Aviam post scholam visere volumus = We want to visit grandmother after school
  • Nos aviam post scholam visere volumus = We want to visit grandmother after school

That second version can sound a bit more emphatic, like we do, or as for us, we do.

Could nos mean us here instead of we?

By form alone, nos can be either we or us. Latin uses the same word for both nominative and accusative plural.

But in this sentence, nos is understood as the subject, so it means we. The structure makes that clear:

  • volumus = we want
  • aviam = the direct object of visere
  • visere = to visit

So nos is not the object here.

Why is it aviam and not avia?

Because aviam is the direct object of visere.

The base form is avia = grandmother.
When a first-declension noun is used as a direct object in the singular, it usually takes -am:

  • nominative: avia = grandmother
  • accusative: aviam = grandmother as the thing/person being visited

Since the sentence says someone wants to visit the grandmother, grandmother is the object, so Latin uses aviam.

Why is it scholam after post?

Because the preposition post takes the accusative case.

So:

  • schola = school
  • scholam = school in the accusative

With post, Latin regularly uses the accusative to mean after:

  • post scholam = after school

This is a very common pattern:

  • post cenam = after dinner
  • post bellum = after the war
  • post meridiem = after midday
What exactly does post scholam mean here?

It means after school, in a time sense.

In English, after school usually means after classes are over, and Latin post scholam can work the same way.

Literally, it is after school, with post + accusative. The exact nuance depends on context, but in a sentence like this, a learner should usually understand it as a time expression, not as something like behind the school.

Why does Latin use visere here instead of videre?

Because visere means to go to see, to visit, or to look in on, while videre more basically means to see.

So:

  • videre = to see
  • visere = to visit / go see

If you are talking about visiting a person, visere is a natural choice.

Historically, visere is related to videre, but in practice you should learn it with its own meaning: visit.

Why is visere in the infinitive?

Because Latin uses a verb of wanting + infinitive, just like English often uses want + to + verb.

So:

  • volumus = we want
  • visere = to visit

Together:

  • visere volumus = we want to visit

This is a very common Latin construction:

  • venire volo = I want to come
  • manere volunt = they want to remain
  • legere volumus = we want to read
Why is volumus at the end of the sentence?

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

Putting the finite verb at the end is very common in Latin, so Nos aviam post scholam visere volumus sounds normal.

You could rearrange the words without changing the basic meaning, for example:

  • Aviam post scholam visere volumus
  • Post scholam aviam visere volumus
  • Nos post scholam aviam visere volumus

These different orders may shift emphasis a little, but the core meaning stays the same.

Why is there no word for the or our before grandmother?

Latin does not have articles like English the or a/an.

So aviam can mean:

  • grandmother
  • the grandmother
  • a grandmother

Context tells you which is meant.

Also, Latin often leaves out possessive words like our when the relationship is obvious from context. So aviam may naturally be understood as our grandmother if the speaker is talking about their own family.

If Latin wanted to say it more explicitly, it could say:

  • nostram aviam = our grandmother
Is this sentence missing a word for to before visit?

No. Latin infinitives do not need a separate word meaning to.

In English, we say to visit.
In Latin, the infinitive is just one word: visere.

So visere already means to visit all by itself.

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