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Learn Hardcore Latin: Urbs centum domos habet. - The city has one hundred houses.

Hardcore Latin
/Inspecting an aqueduct
/Urbs centum domos habet.

Urbs centum domos habet.

Word

Urbs centum domos habet.

Meaning

The city has one hundred houses.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Lesson

Inspecting an aqueduct

Breakdown of Urbs centum domos habet.

Questions & Answers about Urbs centum domos habet.

What is each word doing grammatically in 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.

Why is habet singular even though there are a hundred houses?

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.

Why is domos not domus?

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 .

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domos

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

Why doesn’t centum change its ending?

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

Why is there no word for the or a?

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.

Why is habet at the end of the sentence?

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.

What declension is urbs?

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

Does domus really mean house, or is it more like home?

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.

What tense and form is habet exactly?

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.

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