Cum bona amicitia, laeti vivimus et timorem parvum sentimus.

With good friendship, we live happily and feel little fear.

Breakdown of Cum bona amicitia, laeti vivimus et timorem parvum sentimus.

• laetus: happy
• et: and
• cum: with
• bonus: good
• amicitia: the friendship
• timor: the fear
• vivere: to live
• parvus: little
• sentire: to feel

Questions & Answers about Cum bona amicitia, laeti vivimus et timorem parvum sentimus.

How do we know that cum means “with” here and not “when”?

Cum can be either:

• a preposition = “with” (+ ablative case), or
• a conjunction = “when / since / although” (followed by a whole verb clause).

In Cum bona amicitia, cum is followed directly by a noun phrase in the ablative (bona amicitia), not by a verb. That pattern (cum + noun in ablative) is the typical preposition use, so here it clearly means “with good friendship.”

What case is bona amicitia, and why is it in that case?

Bona amicitia is in the ablative singular.

• Amicitia is a 1st-declension noun:
  • nominative singular: amicitia
  • ablative singular: amicitiā (long -ā, often written just as amicitia without marking length)
• The preposition cum always takes the ablative, so its object must be in that case.

So cum + ablative = “with X”, and here that gives “with good friendship.”

Why is the adjective bona in that form, and what does it agree with?

Bona is the feminine nominative/ablative singular form of bonus, -a, -um (“good”).

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

• gender: masculine / feminine / neuter
• number: singular / plural
• case: nominative / accusative / etc.

Since amicitia (“friendship”) is:

• feminine
• singular
• ablative (because of cum)

the adjective modifying it must also be feminine, singular, ablative → bona. So bona amicitia = “good friendship.”

What is laeti doing in this sentence, and why isn’t it the adverb laete?

Laeti is an adjective, nominative masculine plural of laetus, -a, -um (“happy”).

It is used predicatively, describing the subject “we”:

• laeti vivimus = literally “we live happy,” which in natural English becomes “we live happily.”

Latin often uses an adjective (agreeing with the subject) where English would use an adverb.
So:

• laeti vivimus – “we (being happy) live,” i.e. “we live happily.”
• The form laete is a true adverb, “happily,” but laeti is very normal and slightly more “descriptive of us” than of the manner of living.

Grammatically, laeti is nominative plural, agreeing with the subject (we) implied in vivimus and sentimus.

Why is there no separate word for “we” in the Latin sentence?

Latin usually hides the subject pronoun inside the verb ending.

• vivimus = “we live”
  
  • stem: vivi-
  • ending: -mus = 1st person plural (“we”)
• sentimus = “we feel”
  
  • stem: senti-
  • ending: -mus = “we”

Because the ending -mus already tells us the subject is “we”, Latin does not need to add nōs (the pronoun “we”) unless it wants to emphasize it (“we in particular”). So the sentence already includes “we” twice in the verb forms.

What case is timorem, and how do we know?

Timorem is in the accusative singular, from timor, timōris (“fear”).

We know this because:

• timor is a 3rd-declension noun:
  • nominative singular: timor
  • accusative singular: timorem
• sentimus (“we feel”) is a transitive verb and needs a direct object: what do we feel? → timorem (“fear”).

The direct object of a verb is normally in the accusative in Latin, so timorem must be accusative singular.

Why is parvum in that form, and what does it agree with?

Parvum is the masculine accusative singular form of parvus, -a, -um (“small, little”).

It agrees with timorem:

• timor is masculine,
• here it is singular,
• and it is in the accusative (direct object), so the adjective modifying it must be masculine, singular, accusative → parvum.

Thus timorem parvum = “a small fear / little fear.”

Why is the word order timorem parvum instead of parvum timorem? Can the order change?

Latin word order is fairly flexible. Both are grammatically correct:

• timorem parvum sentimus
• parvum timorem sentimus

The usual tendencies:

• Adjectives often follow the noun: timorem parvum (quite neutral).
• Putting the adjective before the noun can give it slight emphasis: parvum timorem (“a small fear,” stressing “small”).

In this short sentence, the difference is subtle; both mean “we feel little/small fear.” The given order timorem parvum is very normal, everyday Latin.

How do vivimus and sentimus each show that the subject is “we”?

Both verbs are in the 1st person plural present active indicative:

• vivimus (from vivere, “to live”)
  • stem: vivi-
  • ending: -mus = “we”
  • meaning: “we live”
• sentimus (from sentīre, “to feel, sense”)
  • stem: senti-
  • ending: -mus = “we”
  • meaning: “we feel”

So the -mus ending on each verb encodes both the subject person (1st) and number (plural), making a separate nōs unnecessary.

Could cum bona amicitia also be understood as “when there is good friendship”?

In this sentence, no: it is clearly prepositional “cum” = “with” + ablative.

To mean “when there is good friendship”, Latin would normally use cum as a conjunction followed by a verb, e.g.:

• Cum bona amicitia sit, laeti vivimus.
  “When there is good friendship, we live happily.”

In your sentence we have:

• cum
  • bona amicitia (a noun phrase in the ablative),
• no verb immediately after cum.

That structure fits only the preposition use: “with good friendship.”

If the group speaking were all women, would anything in the sentence change?

Yes, the adjective describing “we” would change to feminine plural:

• Cum bona amicitia, laetae vivimus et timorem parvum sentimus.

Changes:

• laeti (masculine/feminine nominative plural) → laetae (feminine nominative plural), explicitly marking that the speakers are all female.

Everything else stays the same:

• bona amicitia – “good friendship” (amicitia is feminine, already matched by bona),
• timorem parvum – “small fear,” no change,
• verbs vivimus, sentimus stay the same; verb endings do not mark gender.