Direct Statements/Subject-Verb Agreement

Collins pp.16-17

Direct statements are just that!  These are sentences that state a fact or make an assertion.

In Latin, these can be one word such as:  Sum.

This means I am.

Or you can say:

Papa est

There is a pope.

"There is" is an idiomatic way of expressing this in English.  In Latin "Papa est" literally translated would be:  Pope is.  And that would be good enough in Latin.  In English though we'd never express this in such a pidgin way.  We'd add in an article and the idiomatic expression:  'there is'.

I am pretty much just restating what Collins writes.

Collins also states that you could possibly translate "Papa est" as He is the Pope.  You would have to see the context of the statement to figure out exactly the best way to express it in English.  So you can be a little bit loose in translating, though my former Latin teacher thought it best, at first, to be literal.  Once you have some confidence, you can begin to work on finessing things.

The last example of a direct statement is the subject - copulative verb-predicate nominative:

Papa est ministri.

The Pope is a servant (or minister.)

Agreement of Subject and Verb:

Just as in English, subjects and verbs have to agree in number.  If the subject is singular than the verb has to reflect that.  For ex.  The boys is happy is not correct.  Why?  Well, the word 'boys' is plural but the verb 'is' doesn't reflect that.  The boys are happy would be correct.

Here are Collins' examples in Latin to show subject-verb agreement:

Deus est.  God exists.  (Deus = Singular, nominative and 'est' = singular, 3rd person)

Puerī sunt servī.  The boys are servants.  (Peurī = nominative, plural, sunt = 3rd person, plural, servī = predicate nominative, plural.)

Puer est servus.  The boy is a servant.  Puer = nominative singular, est = singular, 3rd person, servus = predicate nominative, singular.