Questions & Answers about Septimus dies brevis est.
Why is septimus used instead of septem?
Septimus means seventh, while septem means seven.
In this sentence, Latin is using an ordinal number (seventh) rather than a cardinal number (seven). Since septimus is an adjective, it changes its form to agree with the noun it describes.
So:
- septem dies = seven days
- septimus dies = the seventh day
What case is dies here?
Dies is nominative singular here.
It is the subject of the sentence, the thing being described as short. Since the sentence says that the day is something, the subject normally appears in the nominative case.
So the basic structure is:
- dies = subject
- brevis = predicate adjective describing the subject
- est = is
Why is septimus in the masculine form?
Septimus is masculine because it agrees with dies, which here is treated as a masculine singular noun.
Latin adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in:
- gender