Dux gentem vocat.

• dux = leader or commander
• gentem = tribe, people, or nation
• vocat = calls

So the sentence means something like the leader calls the tribe.

Because gentem is the accusative singular form of gens, gentis.

In this sentence, the tribe or people is the direct object of the verb vocat. In Latin, direct objects usually go in the accusative case, so gens changes to gentem.

• dictionary form: gens
• form used here: gentem

We know because dux is in the nominative case, which is the case normally used for the subject of the sentence.

Latin often shows a word’s job by its ending rather than by word order. Here:

• dux = nominative singular = subject
• gentem = accusative singular = direct object

So dux is the one doing the calling.

The -t ending tells you the verb is third person singular in the present tense.

So vocat means:

• he calls
• she calls
• it calls

Since the subject is dux, the sentence means the leader calls.

This verb comes from vocare, meaning to call.

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

So dux can mean:

• the leader
• a leader

And gentem can mean:

• the tribe
• a tribe
• the people
• a people/nation

You decide from the context which English translation sounds best.

Yes. Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show the grammar.

These can all mean basically the same thing:

• Dux gentem vocat.
• Gentem dux vocat.
• Vocat dux gentem.

The different orders may slightly change the emphasis, but the basic meaning stays the same because dux is still nominative and gentem is still accusative.

No. dux is a noun that can refer to a male or female leader, depending on context.

So grammatically, it is not restricted to only one natural gender. In many textbook examples it may be translated as the leader or the commander, and English context decides whether to say he or she.

A learner would usually meet them like this:

• dux, ducis = leader, commander
• gens, gentis = tribe, people, nation
• voco, vocare, vocavi, vocatus = call

Latin dictionaries usually give nouns with the nominative singular and genitive singular, because that helps you identify the declension pattern.

Not all Latin nominative singular nouns have a clear ending like -us.

dux belongs to the third declension, and third-declension nominative forms are often less predictable. That is why dictionaries are important: they give you dux, ducis, which helps you see the stem duc- in other forms.

For example, you may later see forms like:

• ducis
• duci
• ducem

So dux may look unusual at first, but it is a normal third-declension noun.

A common classroom pronunciation would be roughly:

duks GEN-tem WO-kat

More carefully:

• dux sounds like duks
• gentem has a hard g, like get, not like English gentle
• vocat is pronounced with a w-like v in reconstructed classical pronunciation, so roughly wo-kat

Different teachers may use slightly different pronunciation systems, but the grammar stays the same.