Urbs centum domos habet.

• urbs = nominative singular; it is the subject
• centum = one hundred; a numeral
• domos = accusative plural; it is the direct object
• habet = has; 3rd-person singular present active of habēre

So the sentence is structured as subject + object + verb: the city is the thing doing the having, and the houses are the things being had.

Because the verb agrees with the subject, not with the object.

Here, the subject is urbs, which is singular, so the verb must also be singular: habet = it has.

The fact that domos is plural does not affect the verb. If the subject were plural, you would use a plural verb, for example urbes ... habent.

Because domus is the dictionary form, and dictionary forms are usually nominative singular.

In this sentence, the word for houses is:

• plural, because there are many of them
• accusative, because it is the direct object of habet

So the form becomes domos.

A useful extra note: domus is an irregular noun, mainly fourth declension, and its accusative plural can appear as domos.

Because centum is an indeclinable numeral in Latin.

That means it stays centum no matter what grammatical role it has. The noun after it changes as needed, but centum itself does not.

So:

• centum stays the same
• domos shows the accusative plural ending

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

So urbs can mean:

• the city
• a city

Which one is best depends on context. In a simple sentence like this, English often uses the city or a city, but Latin itself does not force that choice.

Because Latin often prefers to place the verb near or at the end of the sentence.

So Urbs centum domos habet is very natural Latin word order.

English usually prefers subject + verb + object, but Latin is freer because case endings show the grammatical roles. You could also see:

• Urbs habet centum domos
• Centum domos urbs habet

These can mean the same basic thing, though the emphasis may shift slightly.

Urbs is a third-declension noun. Its dictionary form is:

urbs, urbis — city

In this sentence it is nominative singular, because it is the subject.

A few common forms are:

• urbs = nominative singular
• urbis = genitive singular
• urbem = accusative singular
• urbes = nominative/accusative plural

It can mean both, depending on context.

Domus often means:

• house
• home
• sometimes even household

So translating it as houses is perfectly fine here, but the Latin word can have a slightly more personal or domestic feel than a purely architectural English word sometimes does.

Habet is:

• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood
• third person singular

It comes from habēre, meaning to have.

So habet means he/she/it has. In this sentence, since the subject is urbs, the natural English meaning is it has.