Learn Hardcore Latin: Puer celer ad scholam currit, sed puella tarda domi manet et statim dormit. - The boy runs quickly to school, but the girl, being slow, stays at home and immediately sleeps.

schola = nominative singular, usually “school” as a subject:
Schola magna est. – “The school is big.”
scholam = accusative singular, here used after ad to show motion toward something.

The preposition ad (“to, toward”) normally takes the accusative case.
So ad scholam literally = “to the school.”

Why is there no preposition before domi? Why not in domo?

domi is a special “locative” form meaning “at home.”

domus = house, home
domi = at home (locative case)

Many place names and a few common nouns have this special “place where” form; with domus, it is domi.

You can say in domo (“in the house”), but that emphasizes being inside the building.
domi is more general: “at home,” not necessarily focusing on inside/outside. In your sentence, domi manet = “she stays at home.”

Why do puer and puella look so different if both are just “child” words?

They are different nouns with different genders and declensions.

puer, pueri (masculine) = boy
- puer = nominative singular (“boy” as subject)
puella, puellae (feminine) = girl
- puella = nominative singular (“girl” as subject)

Latin marks grammatical gender in the noun itself and in any adjectives that agree with it. So puer celer is masculine, puella tarda is feminine. You can’t use puer and puella interchangeably; each has its own form set.

Why is it puer celer but puella tarda? Why don’t the adjectives have the same endings?

Both adjectives agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case, but they come from different adjective types:

celer, celeris, celere – a 3rd-declension adjective
- masculine nominative singular: celer → matches puer (masc. nom. sg.)
tardus, tarda, tardum – a 1st/2nd-declension adjective
- feminine nominative singular: tarda → matches puella (fem. nom. sg.)

So:

puer celer = “the quick boy” (masc. noun + masc. adjective form)
puella tarda = “the slow girl” (fem. noun + fem. adjective form)

They look different because they belong to different adjective patterns, but both are correctly agreeing with their nouns.

Could I say puer celeriter ad scholam currit? What’s the difference between celer and celeriter?

Yes, puer celeriter ad scholam currit is good Latin, and it changes the nuance slightly:

celer = an adjective = “quick, fast (as a quality)”
- puer celer ad scholam currit emphasizes that the boy himself is a quick boy, and he runs to school.
celeriter = the adverb from celer = “quickly”
- puer celeriter ad scholam currit focuses more on how he runs: “the boy runs quickly to school.”

Both sentences are natural; the original slightly stresses the boy’s character (“a quick boy”), while celeriter stresses the manner of the action (“runs quickly”).

How do we know that currit, manet, and dormit all mean “he/she” and not “I” or “they”?

The verb endings tell you who is doing the action.

All three verbs here are 3rd person singular present indicative:

currit – “he/she runs”
manet – “he/she stays”
dormit – “he/she sleeps”

Latin present endings (active, indicative) roughly:

-ō / -m = I
-s = you (singular)
-t = he/she/it
-mus = we
-tis = you (plural)
-nt = they

Since they end in -t, they must mean “he/she/it does X”. The nouns puer and puella tell us who the subject actually is.

Why can currit be translated both as “runs” and “is running”?

Latin’s present tense usually covers both English simple present and present continuous.

So currit can mean:

“he runs” (general or repeated action)
“he is running” (action happening right now)

Context decides which English form sounds more natural. In a simple narrative like this, both “the boy runs to school” and “the boy is running to school” are fine translations of puer celer ad scholam currit.

Why does the verb usually come at the end, as in puer celer ad scholam currit? Could we move words around?

Latin word order is quite flexible. The “default” or very common pattern is:

Subject – (Modifiers) – Object – Verb

So puer celer ad scholam currit is very typical. But you can move things for emphasis or style, for example:

Celer puer ad scholam currit.
Ad scholam puer celer currit.

All still mean essentially “the quick boy runs to school”. The changes mostly affect rhythm and which word you want to highlight. The case endings (like -am in scholam) and verb endings (like -t in currit) protect the meaning when the order changes.

Why is puella the subject of both manet and dormit, even though it isn’t repeated?

In Latin, once a subject is clear, it does not need to be repeated for each verb.

puella tarda domi manet et statim dormit
literally: “the slow girl at home stays and immediately sleeps”

Both manet and dormit are 3rd person singular; the only logical subject in that clause is puella. So Latin understands:

puella … manet
(puella) … dormit

Repeating puella would sound heavy and unnecessary:
✗ puella tarda domi manet et puella statim dormit – possible but clumsy.

What exactly does sed do in this sentence? Are there other Latin words for “but”?

sed is a coordinating conjunction meaning “but”, introducing a contrast:

Puer celer ad scholam currit, sed puella tarda domi manet…
“The quick boy runs to school, but the slow girl stays at home…”

Other Latin “but”-type words exist, each with a nuance:

autem – “however, on the other hand” (often second in the clause)
at – a stronger “but,” sometimes used in objections or sharp contrasts
verum / tamen – “however, nevertheless”

Here sed is the most straightforward, neutral “but” to contrast the boy’s action with the girl’s.

Does statim mean she immediately stays at home or that she immediately sleeps? What does the adverb modify?

statim means “immediately”, and its position suggests it modifies dormit (“sleeps”).

The clause is:

domi manet et statim dormit

Normal reading:

domi manet = “she stays at home”
statim dormit = “she immediately falls asleep / sleeps at once”

If the author wanted to stress that she immediately stays at home, you might see something like:

statim domi manet et dormit – “she immediately stays at home and sleeps”

In practice, Latin adverbs can float a bit, but here statim most naturally attaches to the verb right after the et, i.e. dormit.