Ursus in silva habitat.

Because ursus is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject of the sentence.

• ursus = bear
• nominative singular = the bear / a bear as the doer of the action

So ursus is the one that habitat.

Habitat is the 3rd person singular present active indicative of habitāre, meaning to live, to dwell, or to inhabit.

That tells you:

• 3rd person = he/she/it
• singular = one subject
• present = happening now or generally
• active = the subject performs the action

So ursus ... habitat means the bear lives or the bear dwells.

With in, Latin uses different cases depending on the meaning:

• in + ablative = in / on a place, showing location
• in + accusative = into / onto a place, showing motion toward

Here the bear is living in the forest, not going into the forest, so Latin uses the ablative:

• in silvā = in the forest

If you said in silvam, that would suggest movement into the forest.

Here silva is ablative singular after the preposition in.

The dictionary form is silva, meaning forest or woodland. In the first declension, the ablative singular often ends in -ā. Many textbooks write the long vowel as silvā.

So:

• dictionary form: silva
• form used here: silvā
• function: object of in, showing location

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

So ursus can mean:

• a bear
• the bear

And in silva can mean:

• in a forest
• in the forest

Which one sounds best depends on context. Latin leaves that unstated unless the context makes it clear.

Yes. Latin word order is more flexible than English because the endings show the grammatical function of words.

So these can all mean roughly the same thing:

• Ursus in silva habitat.
• In silva ursus habitat.
• Habitat ursus in silva.

However, the most natural order depends on style and emphasis. The original sentence is a very straightforward beginner-style order.

Because ursus with -us is nominative singular for a second-declension masculine noun.

Its nominative plural would be ursī.

So:

• ursus = bear
• ursī = bears

Also, the verb matches:

• habitat = he/she/it lives = singular
• habitant = they live = plural

The singular noun and singular verb agree.

Yes. The English noun habitat comes from Latin habitat, literally it lives.

In Latin, though, habitat is a verb form, not a noun. In this sentence it means lives.

So English borrowed a Latin verb form and turned it into a noun meaning the natural place where an animal or plant lives.

A common classical pronunciation would be roughly:

OOR-soos in SIL-wa HA-bi-taht

More carefully:

• ursus = OOR-soos
• in = in
• silva = SIL-wa (the v is pronounced like w in classical Latin)
• habitat = HA-bi-taht

If your course uses ecclesiastical pronunciation, the sounds may be a little different, but the grammar stays the same.

Because in Latin a singular noun can refer to a place in a general way, just like English the forest or a forest.

So in silvā habitat does not mean the bear lives in only one tree-filled unit in a mathematical sense. It simply means it lives in the forest. Latin uses the singular noun normally here.

You would usually look them up like this:

• ursus, ursī, m. = bear
• silva, silvae, f. = forest, wood
• habitō, habitāre, habitāvī, habitātum = live, dwell, inhabit
• in = preposition meaning in, on, into, depending on the case used after it

Those dictionary forms help you identify declension or conjugation and recognize why the words look the way they do in the sentence.