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Questions & Answers about Elephas magnus est.
Why is there no separate word for an or the?
Latin does not have articles. So elephas can mean an elephant, the elephant, or just elephant in a general sense. The exact sense comes from context, not from a separate word.
What case and number is elephas here?
Here elephas is nominative singular. It is the subject of the sentence: the thing being described as big.
Why does elephas end in -as? Is it a first-declension noun?
No. Even though -as might look unusual to an English-speaking beginner, elephas is not a first-declension noun. It is a third-declension noun borrowed from Greek. Its other forms come from the stem elephant-, as in the genitive elephantis.
Why is the adjective magnus and not magna or magnum?
Adjectives in Latin must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. In this sentence, elephas is being treated as masculine nominative singular, so the adjective must also be masculine nominative singular: magnus.