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- "Philadelphia is a city."
"Philadelphia is a city."
Translation:Philadelphia est urbs.
9 Comments
est should be at the end of the sentence, but also word order is very fluid and should not count against students
You're right that both options are correct.
On the other hand, using 'est' in the middle of the sentence is the more natural option for this sentence. This is because 'est' functions as a copular verb.
A copular verb is used when a subject is described. The word describing the subject is called the subject complement
Philadelphia = Subject est = verb urbs = subject complement
This is also the reason that 'urbs' is in the nomanitive case
Urbs is nominative singular, you'd use it in phrases where the city is the object "Rome is a city/Roma est urbs"
Ube is ablative and can for example be used in locative complements, "I live in the city/Habito in urbe"
Word order should not matter; verbs usually are placed at the end of the sentence
The above comments are correct. In Classical Latin you typically see verbs at the end of the sentence, but given the inflective nature of the language word order should not matter.
As with other posters: I was marked wrong for placing 'est' at the end of the city, but word order is unimportant in Latin and it flows better with the verb at the end. There's a wee glitch.
