Canis ferus per silvam currit.

Canis is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of a sentence in Latin. In this sentence, canis is the thing doing the action of currit, so it is the subject.

Also, the verb currit means he, she, it runs or runs, and its singular form matches the singular subject canis.

Canis is the nominative singular form of the noun canis, canis, meaning dog.

It belongs to the third declension. Unlike first- and second-declension nouns, many third-declension nouns do not have a very predictable nominative ending, so canis is simply the dictionary form you learn.

Ferus is an adjective modifying canis. It means wild, untamed, or sometimes fierce, depending on context.

So canis ferus means a wild dog.

In Latin, adjectives agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here, ferus is masculine nominative singular, matching canis.

In Latin, word order is much more flexible than in English. An adjective can come before or after the noun.

So:

• canis ferus
• ferus canis

can both mean wild dog.

Sometimes the position can slightly affect emphasis or style, but both are grammatically fine. A learner should get used to the fact that Latin does not depend on word order as heavily as English does.

The noun canis can be masculine or feminine, depending on the actual dog being referred to.

In this sentence, ferus is masculine, so it shows that the dog is being treated as masculine here.

If the dog were feminine, you would expect fera instead:

• canis fera

So the adjective helps tell you the gender being used.

Silvam is the accusative singular of silva, meaning forest or wood.

It is accusative because the preposition per takes the accusative case. So after per, you expect a form like silvam, not silva.

• silva = nominative singular
• silvam = accusative singular

In Latin, many prepositions require a specific case after them. Per is one of the prepositions that regularly takes the accusative.

Its basic meaning is through, along, or by way of, especially when there is movement through space.

So:

• per silvam = through the forest

This is something Latin learners often just have to memorize: preposition + required case.

Per silvam means through the forest.

The idea is movement passing through an area, not just being located inside it. That fits well with currit, since running is an action of motion.

So the phrase tells you where the running happens in terms of movement.

Currit is the third person singular present active indicative of currere, meaning to run.

Breaking that down:

• present = happening now, runs / is running
• active = the subject performs the action
• indicative = a normal statement
• third person singular = he/she/it runs

Because the subject canis is singular, currit is singular too.

Latin often places the verb near or at the end of the sentence, although this is not a strict rule.

So Canis ferus per silvam currit is a very natural Latin order. English usually prefers subject-verb-object or subject-verb-adverbial order, but Latin often saves the verb for last.

That said, Latin could rearrange the words for emphasis:

• Currit canis ferus per silvam
• Per silvam canis ferus currit

These still mean roughly the same thing, though the emphasis changes.

Classical Latin does not have articles like English the or a/an.

So canis ferus could mean:

• a wild dog
• the wild dog

The exact sense depends on context. If the meaning has already been given to the learner, that choice has been made by the translation, not by a separate Latin word.

Yes. Ferus often means wild, but it can also carry ideas like:

• untamed
• savage
• fierce

The exact nuance depends on the context. In a simple beginner sentence like this one, wild is the most straightforward meaning.

A common classroom pronunciation would be roughly:

KAH-nis FEH-rus pehr SIL-wam KOOR-rit

More carefully:

• canis → KA-nis or KAH-nis
• ferus → FEH-rus
• per → pehr
• silvam → SIL-wam
• currit → KOOR-rit

A few useful points:

• c is always hard, like k
• v is often pronounced like w in reconstructed classical pronunciation
• r is rolled or tapped if possible
• u is like oo in food

Yes. Because Latin has no article and because the present tense can be translated in more than one way, several English translations are possible.

Depending on context, currit could be rendered as:

• runs
• is running
• sometimes even does run

And canis ferus could be:

• a wild dog
• the wild dog

So multiple English versions can be correct, even though the Latin stays the same.

A learner might want to identify each word this way:

• canis from canis, canis = dog
• ferus from ferus, -a, -um = wild
• per = through
• silvam from silva, silvae = forest, wood
• currit from curro, currere, cucurri, cursum = run

This is useful because Latin words often change form depending on their grammatical role in the sentence.