The Investigation - A Grammatical Commentary / by Anthony Gibbins

Today’s page has two sentences. The bare bones of the first are Miranda vestigia sequitur Miranda follows the footprints. sequitur she follows is a Deponent Verb, meaning that while it looks Passive it is in fact Active. The Adverb diligenter carefully describes the manner in which she is following them. A second Adverb, postridie the next day, links this sentence to what has come before. The Genitive Case Jessicae of Jessica tells us whose footprints Miranda is following. The vestigia are described by the Perfect Passive Participle inventa having been found. The Adverb modo just now - positioned immediately before inventa - tells us when the footprints were found.

The next day, Miranda is carefully following the footprints of Jessica [which had] just been found.

The bare bones of the second sentence are vestigia custodem publicam ducunt the footprints lead the public guard (police officer). vestigia is described by the Demonstrative Adjective haec these. A Prepositional Phrase ad canalem to the pipe tells us to where the footprints are leading her. canalem is described - perhaps unnecessarily - by the Adjective aquosam having to do with water.

These footprints are leading the police officer to the water pipe.