Cupido gloriae iuvenem movet.

You can tell from the case endings.

• Cupido is nominative singular, so it is the subject.
• iuvenem is accusative singular, so it is the direct object.
• movet is third person singular, so it agrees with the singular subject cupido.

So the basic structure is:

• Cupido = the thing doing the action
• iuvenem = the person receiving the action
• movet = moves / stirs

Because cupido often takes a genitive to express desire for something.

So:

• cupido gloriae = desire of glory, which in natural English becomes desire for glory

This is a very common Latin pattern. English often uses for, but Latin often uses the genitive instead.

This kind of genitive is often called an objective genitive, because the genitive noun names the thing that the desire is directed toward.

Yes. The form gloriae could be:

• genitive singular = of glory
• dative singular = to/for glory
• nominative plural = glories

But in this sentence, genitive singular is the correct choice, because cupido regularly goes with the genitive in the sense desire for X.

So cupido gloriae is understood as one unit: desire for glory.

Literally, movet means moves. It comes from moveo, movere.

But in a sentence like this, it is probably more figurative than physical. It can mean:

• moves
• stirs
• affects
• impels
• motivates

So the sense is something like Desire for glory motivates the young man or stirs the young man.

Iuvenem is the accusative singular of iuvenis, meaning young man or youth.

Because it is accusative, it is the direct object of movet.

So iuvenem movet means moves the young man.

Latin usually has no articles.

So cupido can mean:

• desire
• the desire
• sometimes even a desire

And iuvenem can mean:

• a young man
• the young man

You decide from the context which English article sounds best.

Yes. Cupido can be:

• a common noun meaning desire
• a proper name, Cupid, the god

In this sentence, it is clearly the common noun meaning desire, not the god. The phrase cupido gloriae means desire for glory, which makes that clear.

Also, as a noun meaning desire, cupido is usually feminine.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammar.

English depends heavily on position:

• The desire moves the young man

Latin can move words around more freely because cupido is marked as nominative and iuvenem as accusative.

In Cupido gloriae iuvenem movet, the order is quite natural:

• cupido gloriae stays together as a phrase
• movet comes at the end, which is very common in Latin

So even though the order is not exactly English order, the meaning is still clear.

They come from different declensions:

• cupido, cupidinis — third declension
• gloria, gloriae — first declension
• iuvenis, iuvenis — third declension

That is why their endings look different:

• cupido = nominative singular
• gloriae = genitive singular
• iuvenem = accusative singular

A big part of learning Latin is getting used to recognizing these endings across different declensions.

Yes. Since the basic meaning is already known, the main differences are just in style.

Possible translations include:

• Desire for glory moves the young man.
• The desire for glory stirs the youth.
• Ambition for glory motivates the young man.

All of these reflect the same Latin structure. The exact English wording depends on how literally or smoothly you want to translate movet and cupido gloriae.