Mater virginem vocat.

In this sentence, mater is the subject because of its form and because virginem has a clear accusative ending.

Latin relies much more on case endings than English does. English usually tells us who is doing the action mainly by word order:

• The mother calls the girl = mother is the subject
• The girl calls the mother = girl is the subject

But Latin often shows this through endings instead:

• mater = mother as subject here
• virginem = girl/maiden/virgin as direct object

So even if the words were rearranged, the basic meaning could stay the same.

Because virginem is the accusative singular form, which is used for the direct object.

The verb vocat means calls, so the sentence answers the question calls whom?
The answer is the girl/maiden, so that noun must be in the accusative:

• nominative: virgo = the girl/maiden as subject
• accusative: virginem = the girl/maiden as object

So:

• Virgo vocat = The girl calls
• Mater virginem vocat = The mother calls the girl

Mater is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of a sentence.

Here is the basic idea:

• mater = nominative singular = mother as subject
• matrem = accusative singular = mother as object

So if you changed the sentence to Virginem mater vocat, mater would still be nominative singular and still be the subject.

Virginem is accusative singular.

The accusative case is commonly used for the direct object, meaning the person or thing directly affected by the action of the verb.

In Mater virginem vocat:

• mater does the calling
• virginem receives the action of being called

So virginem is the direct object.

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 mater is singular and means mother, we understand vocat here as she calls or simply calls.

This is a very common Latin pattern:

• voco = I call
• vocas = you call
• vocat = he/she/it calls

No. Classical Latin does not have a definite article like English the, and it also does not have an indefinite article like a/an.

So mater can mean:

• mother
• the mother
• sometimes even a mother, depending on context

And virginem can mean:

• a girl/maiden
• the girl/maiden

The exact choice in English depends on context and what meaning has already been given to the learner.

Yes. Latin word order is often more flexible than English word order because the endings show each word’s role.

All of these could mean essentially the same thing:

• Mater virginem vocat
• Virginem mater vocat
• Vocat mater virginem
• Virginem vocat mater

However, changing the order can change the emphasis. For example:

• Mater virginem vocat may sound neutral.
• Virginem mater vocat may emphasize the girl.
• Vocat mater virginem may emphasize the action calls.

So the endings keep the grammar clear, while word order can add style or focus.

You mostly know it from vocabulary, not just from the ending.

Mater means mother, so its natural gender is feminine. In Latin grammar, it is also treated as a feminine noun.

This is worth noticing because the ending -er does not automatically mean masculine. Beginners often associate -us with masculine and may expect feminine nouns to look different, but Latin nouns do not always follow simple English-style expectations.

So the safest approach is: learn each noun with its gender as part of its dictionary information.

Correct. Mater is not first declension. It is a third-declension noun.

That matters because third-declension nouns often have forms that are less predictable than first- or second-declension nouns.

A learner may eventually meet forms like:

• nominative singular: mater
• accusative singular: matrem
• genitive singular: matris

So even though mater is feminine, it does not use the common first-declension pattern like puella, puellae.

Virgo is also a third-declension noun.

Its important forms include:

• nominative singular: virgo
• accusative singular: virginem
• genitive singular: virginis

That is why the object form is virginem instead of something like virgam or virgo.

Many third-declension nouns change their stem slightly in different cases, and virgo → virgin- is a good example of that.

A common classroom pronunciation would be approximately:

MAH-ter WEER-gi-nem WO-kat

A few notes:

• c in classical Latin is always hard, like k
• v in reconstructed classical pronunciation is often pronounced like English w
• g is always hard, as in get
• stress usually falls as follows:
  • MÁ-ter
  • VÍR-gi-nem
  • VÓ-cat

If your course uses an ecclesiastical pronunciation, it may sound somewhat different, but the grammar stays the same.

Not necessarily. Latin virgo, virginis can mean maiden, young woman, girl, or virgin, depending on context.

For beginners, it is often safer to think of it as maiden or girl unless the context clearly requires the more specific sense virgin.

So in a basic sentence like this, the exact English wording may vary depending on what meaning your textbook has already supplied.

Yes, depending on context, vocat can mean things like:

• calls
• summons
• names
• invites

But in a simple beginner sentence, it is usually understood as calls.

Latin verbs often have a range of possible translations, so the best English version depends on context. The core idea of vocare is to call.

You would switch the cases of the two nouns:

• Virgo matrem vocat

Here:

• virgo = nominative singular, subject
• matrem = accusative singular, direct object

That shows a key point of Latin grammar: to change who is doing the action and who receives it, you often change the endings, not just the order.

Because Latin verbs usually include the subject information inside the verb ending.

In vocat, the ending -t already tells you the subject is:

• he
• she
• or it

So Latin does not need to add a separate pronoun unless it wants special emphasis.

For example:

• Mater vocat = The mother calls
• Ea vocat = She calls
• Mater ea vocat would not mean The mother she calls in the normal sense; ea would usually need a different grammatical role

So in Latin, the verb itself often does work that English needs a pronoun to do.