One person, many people
Distinguish singular and plural subjects, objects, and forms of sum.
Build the idea, then use it.
Number affects both nouns and verbs. Read the ending and make the verb agree before translating.
One person, many people
Latin endings also mark number. puella and puellae can mean “girl” and “girls” in the nominative; puellam and puellās mark singular and plural objects. est “is” contrasts with sunt “are.”
Case and number travel together in an ending
Latin nouns change for number as well as case. In the first declension, puella is nominative singular and puellae is nominative plural; puellam is accusative singular and puellās is accusative plural. In the second-declension masculine pattern, servus and servī can be singular and plural subjects, while servum and servōs can be singular and plural objects. A long vowel in -ās or -ōs is part of the ending, not decoration.
The verb should agree with its subject in person and number. est means ‘is’ and sunt means ‘are.’ Puella est and puellae sunt form natural pairs. An object does not control this agreement: in puella servōs videt, the plural servants are seen, but singular puella still requires singular videt.
Use agreement to resolve an ambiguous form
Some forms can have more than one analysis. puellae may be nominative plural, genitive singular, or dative singular. In puellae in Italiā sunt, the plural verb sunt makes ‘the girls’ the sensible reading. In liber puellae est, a later lesson will show that the same form can mean ‘of the girl.’ Context is not a fallback after endings fail; endings and context work together.
Read multī servī puellās vident. multī and servī are masculine nominative plural and belong together: ‘many servants.’ puellās is feminine accusative plural: ‘the girls.’ The verb vident ends in -nt and agrees with the plural subject. The full translation is ‘Many servants see the girls.’
One and more than one
For the first patterns you meet, puella is ‘girl’ and puellae is ‘girls’ when they are subjects; puellam and puellās are the corresponding objects. A singular subject uses est, ‘is,’ while a plural subject uses sunt, ‘are.’ Some endings later prove ambiguous, so a complete sentence—not one isolated word—must decide the reading.
Learn these five words in context.
Read them once now; the check will ask you to retrieve them.
- sunt
- are
- puellae
- girlsHere, nominative plural.
- servī
- enslaved men or servantsNominative plural.
- puellās
- girlsAccusative plural.
- multī
- manyMasculine nominative plural.
Puellae in Rōmā sunt.
Puellae in Rōmā sunt.
The girls are in Rome.
- 01
puellae is plural in this sentence.
- 02
sunt agrees with a plural subject and means ‘are.’
- 03
The pair puellae … sunt confirms the reading more securely than either word alone.
Source focusAllen and Greenough §§40–43, 170+
Keep this citation attached to the lesson’s claims. Source, genre, date, and purpose determine what the evidence can responsibly support.