Sentence X-ray: seeing through Latin sentences
About this app
A beam of light uncovers real sentences by Seneca and Ovid layer by layer: predicate, subject, complements, word blocks, subordinate clauses, indented model. When you rearrange the words, arcs and meaning stay and only the emphasis moves. With a check mode that gives feedback on every form.
With explain mode: an AI tutor walks you through the app, points out what matters in the scene and answers your questions.
Why the ending matters
In Latin the ending shows what a word does in the sentence. A nominative stays the subject even at the end of the sentence, and an accusative stays the object even when it opens the sentence. That leaves word order free to create emphasis. Translating from left to right stumbles on exactly this. A safer path starts at the predicate: its ending gives person and number, and subject, complements, word blocks and subordinate clauses follow from there.
What the app shows
A real sentence lies on a dark light table as word cards. A beam of light does not travel from left to right: it jumps to the predicate and from there to the dependent words. Endings light up, arcs grow from the predicate to its complements, and arcs below the words join what agrees in case, number and gender. Finally the words glide into the indented model and the translation appears. Tap any form to see its dictionary form, parsing and function.
What you can try
In Rearrange mode you drag words to other places. The arcs stay attached to the same words, the translation stays the same, and only the stressed places at the start and end change. In Analyse mode you assign the roles yourself, check them and then look for the word blocks. Every mistake comes with a reason drawn from the form. You can choose from ten sentences from Seneca’s letters and philosophical works and from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you analyse a Latin sentence?
- Start with the predicate: the finite verb gives person and number. Then look for the subject in the nominative, followed by the complements the predicate needs. After that, join words that agree in case, number and gender, and mark subordinate clauses from their opening word to their verb.
- What does agreement mean in Latin?
- An adjective or participle matches its noun in case, number and gender. That is why nova and corpora belong together in the first sentence of the Metamorphoses, although almost the whole sentence stands between them.
- What is the indented model?
- The indented model writes a sentence out so that the governing part stands on the left and dependent parts move in. Main clauses stay at the left, subordinate clauses are indented. It shows what depends on what, even when a subordinate clause sits inside the main clause.
- What can I do in the Sentence X-ray app?
- You can X-ray ten sentences by Seneca and Ovid layer by layer, rearrange the words to see that arcs and meaning stay, and analyse sentences yourself with feedback on every form.
Subject: Latin
More from Latin
- AcI Stage: the accusative that acts
- Hexameter Workshop: scanning Latin verse
- Participle Time Machine: time relation and sense
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