Auriga flagello et calcari utitur.

Because utor is one of those Latin verbs that takes the ablative, not the accusative.

So in:

Auriga flagello et calcari utitur.

the words flagello and calcari are both ablative singular, even though in English we would think of them as the objects of uses.

This is something you simply learn with the verb:

• utor = use
  • ablative

A few other Latin verbs work similarly, but utor is one of the most important ones to remember.

Utitur is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• indicative mood
• from the verb utor, uti, usus sum

So it means he/she uses or is using, depending on context.

Since the subject here is auriga, the sense is the charioteer uses.

Because utor is a deponent verb.

A deponent verb has:

• passive forms
• but active meaning

So although utitur looks like it might mean something passive, it actually means uses.

This is very common in Latin, and learners often need time to get used to it.

Auriga is nominative singular, and it is the subject of the sentence.

So auriga is the one doing the action of utitur.

Even though auriga ends in -a, it is a masculine first-declension noun in normal usage, meaning charioteer.

That can surprise English-speaking learners, because many first-declension nouns are feminine, but not all of them are.

In Latin, noun gender does not always match the ending.

Many nouns in the first declension are feminine, but some are masculine, especially words referring to jobs or roles typically held by men in Roman society.

Auriga is one of these masculine first-declension nouns.

So:

• auriga = a first-declension noun
• gender = masculine
• case here = nominative singular

They are both singular nouns in the ablative:

• flagello comes from flagellum, -i = whip
• calcari comes from calcar, calcaris = spur

So the charioteer is using:

• a whip
• and a spur

This sentence is also a good example of two different declensions appearing together:

• flagellum = 2nd declension neuter
• calcar = 3rd declension neuter

Because here Latin does not need cum.

With utor, the ablative itself expresses the thing used. In English we often translate that idea with with, but Latin handles it through the case required by the verb.

So:

• flagello utitur = he uses a whip / literally something like he makes use of a whip
• calcari utitur = he uses a spur

You should not think of this as cum + ablative. It is better to think:

• utor + ablative

Et simply means and.

It joins the two ablative nouns that both depend on utitur:

• flagello
• calcari

So both are things the charioteer uses.

In other words, the structure is:

• Auriga = subject
• flagello et calcari = two ablatives used with utor
• utitur = verb

Not as much as in English.

Latin word order is fairly flexible because the endings show each word’s function. Here the sentence has a very common Latin arrangement:

• subject first: Auriga
• then other elements: flagello et calcari
• verb at the end: utitur

That said, Latin could rearrange the words for emphasis without changing the basic meaning, for example:

• Flagello et calcari auriga utitur.
• Auriga utitur flagello et calcari.

The original version is simply a normal, straightforward order.

Because Classical Latin has no articles.

So auriga could mean:

• the charioteer
• a charioteer

and similarly:

• flagello = with a whip / with the whip
• calcari = with a spur / with the spur

The exact choice in English depends on context, not on a separate Latin word.

The dictionary entry is:

• utor, uti, usus sum

This tells you that it is a deponent verb. When learning Latin, it is worth memorizing utor together with its ablative construction:

• utor + ablative = use

That way, when you see utitur, you will immediately know both its meaning and the case it governs.