Auriga equos incitat.

Because auriga is in the nominative case, which is the case normally used for the subject of the sentence.

In this sentence:

• auriga = the subject, the charioteer
• equos = the direct object, the horses
• incitat = drives/urges on

Latin often shows each word’s job by its ending, not mainly by word order.

The ending -os shows that equos is accusative plural.

That tells you two things:

• accusative = it is the direct object
• plural = it means horses, not horse

The noun is equus in the nominative singular, but when it becomes a plural direct object, it changes to equos.

A quick comparison:

• equus = horse
• equum = horse as a singular direct object
• equi = horses
• equos = horses as a plural direct object

That is a very common question. In Latin, nouns ending in -a are often first-declension, and many first-declension nouns are feminine. But not all of them are.

Auriga is a masculine noun even though it looks like a typical first-declension form.

So:

• auriga is first declension in its forms
• but its gender is masculine
• it means charioteer

Latin has a small group of masculine first-declension nouns, especially for occupations or roles, such as:

• agricola = farmer
• nauta = sailor
• poeta = poet
• auriga = charioteer

Incitat is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from the verb incito, incitare, meaning to set in motion, urge on, spur on, incite.

So incitat means:

• he/she/it urges on
• he/she/it drives on
• in this sentence, the charioteer urges on the horses

It is singular because the subject auriga is singular.

In Latin, the verb must agree with its subject in person and number.

Here:

• auriga = singular subject
• incitat = 3rd person singular verb

That match is important.

If the subject were plural, the verb would also become plural. For example:

• auriga equos incitat = the charioteer urges on the horses
• aurigae equos incitant = the charioteers urge on the horses

It matters less in Latin than in English, because Latin endings already show the grammatical roles.

So all of these could mean essentially the same thing:

• Auriga equos incitat
• Equos auriga incitat
• Incitat auriga equos

The endings still tell you:

• auriga = subject
• equos = object

That said, word order in Latin is not random. Different orders can change emphasis or style.

A learner should know two things:

• the endings tell you the basic grammar
• the word order can highlight particular words

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

So auriga can mean:

• a charioteer
• the charioteer

And equos can mean:

• horses
• the horses

You decide from the context which English translation sounds best.

That is why one Latin sentence can often be translated in more than one natural English way.

A learner often wants to know what forms to look up in a dictionary.

They are:

• auriga, aurigae = charioteer
• equus, equi = horse
• incito, incitare, incitavi, incitatus = urge on, spur on, incite

Why these matter:

• nouns are usually listed by nominative singular + genitive singular
• verbs are usually listed by their principal parts

So from equos, you learn to recognize that the dictionary form is equus.

No, not in this sentence.

Because equos is accusative plural, it is marked as the direct object, not the subject.

If horses were the subject, you would expect the nominative plural equi, not equos.

Compare:

• Auriga equos incitat = the charioteer urges on the horses
• Equi currunt = the horses run

So the ending is what settles the question.

Literally, incitat means something like:

• sets in motion
• urges on
• spurs on
• drives on

With horses, it has the sense of making them go faster or pushing them forward energetically.

So depending on context, good English translations might include:

• The charioteer urges on the horses.
• The charioteer drives the horses on.
• The charioteer spurs on the horses.

In restored Classical pronunciation, a simple guide would be:

• auriga ≈ ow-REE-ga
• equos ≈ EH-kwos
• incitat ≈ IN-ki-tat

A few useful points:

• au sounds like the ow in cow
• qu sounds like kw
• c is always hard, like k

So the whole sentence is roughly:

ow-REE-ga EH-kwos IN-ki-tat

There are two noun cases here:

• auriga = nominative singular
• equos = accusative plural

And their functions are:

• nominative = subject
• accusative = direct object

This is one of the most basic patterns in Latin:

subject in the nominative + object in the accusative + verb

Then equos would become equum, the accusative singular.

So:

• Auriga equum incitat = the charioteer urges on the horse

That is a useful contrast:

• equum = one horse as object
• equos = more than one horse as object