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Secunda hora puella cum amicis pila in horto ludit.

Secunda hora puella cum amicis pila in horto ludit.
At the second hour the girl plays with a ball in the garden with her friends.
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Questions & Answers about Secunda hora puella cum amicis pila in horto ludit.

What does secunda hora mean grammatically, and why is there no word for at?

Secunda hora is in the ablative case and is an ablative of time when. Latin often expresses “at [a certain time]” using the ablative alone, without a preposition:

  • secunda hora = at the second hour / at two o’clock
  • nocte = at night
  • tertia die = on the third day

So the idea of “at” is built into the ablative ending; Latin does not need a separate word for it here.

Why is it secunda hora and not something like secundus hora?

Adjectives in Latin must agree with the nouns they describe in gender, number, and case.

  • hora is feminine, singular, ablative (1st declension).
  • Therefore the adjective must also be feminine, singular, ablative: secunda.

If the noun were masculine, you would see secundus; neuter would be secundum. Here the form secunda matches hora.

What case is puella, and what is its function in the sentence?

Puella is nominative singular, and it is the subject of the verb ludit.

  • puella = the girl (subject)
  • ludit = plays

The nominative is the case normally used for the subject of a finite verb in Latin.

What exactly is going on with ludit? Which person, number, and tense is it, and why not ludunt?

Ludit is:

  • 3rd person (he/she/it)
  • singular
  • present tense
  • indicative mood
  • active voice

It must agree with its subject, puella (a single girl). So Latin uses ludit (she plays), not ludunt (they play).

If the subject were plural (puellae, the girls), then you would use ludunt:

  • Secunda hora puellae cum amicis pila in horto ludunt.
    At the second hour the girls play ball with their friends in the garden.
Is ludit more like “plays” or “is playing” in English?

Latin present tense covers both English:

  • simple present (she plays)
  • present progressive (she is playing)

Context decides which English form sounds more natural. Here, either “the girl plays” or “the girl is playing” is acceptable.

What case is amicis, and how does cum work with it?

Amicis is ablative plural (from amicus, amici, friend).

The preposition cum takes the ablative and expresses accompaniment:

  • cum amicis = with (her) friends

So cum amicis tells you with whom she is playing. The pattern is:

  • cum
    • ablative = with [a person / people]
What is the role of pila in this sentence? Is it the direct object?

Here pila is not the direct object; it is an ablative of means/instrument:

  • pila (ablative) = with a ball, by means of a ball

The verb ludere often behaves like “to play” intransitively, and the thing you play (the game, the instrument) can go into the ablative of means:

  • pilā ludit = she plays with a ball / she plays ball
  • cithara ludit = he plays the lyre

In ordinary printed Latin without macrons, pila (nom.) and pilā (abl.) look the same, so you infer the ablative from the typical usage with ludere and from the meaning (she plays ball, not the ball plays).

How can I tell that pila is not another subject together with puella?

In theory, nominative pila could be another subject, but that would give:

  • the girl and the ball play with (her) friends in the garden

That makes little sense, and it is not how Latin normally expresses this idea. Much more idiomatic is:

  • puella (subject) + ludit (intransitive) + pila in the ablative of means = the girl plays (with) a ball

In practice, you use meaning and typical constructions of ludere to decide that pila is ablative, not a second subject.

What case is horto, and what does in horto tell us about the preposition in?

Horto is ablative singular (from hortus, horti, garden).

The preposition in in Latin works like this:

  • in
    • ablative = location → in, on, at
      • in horto = in the garden
  • in
    • accusative = motion toward → into, onto
      • in hortum = into the garden

So in horto here expresses where the action takes place, not movement into the garden.

Why is the word order Secunda hora puella cum amicis pila in horto ludit instead of following strict English order?

Latin word order is relatively flexible. The most important information is often placed near the beginning, and the finite verb often comes last.

In this sentence:

  • Secunda hora (time) is placed first: it sets the scene.
  • puella (subject) comes early: who is acting.
  • cum amicis pila in horto (with whom, with what, where) follows.
  • ludit (the main action) comes at the end.

You could rearrange the words without changing the basic meaning, for example:

  • Puella secunda hora in horto cum amicis pila ludit.
  • Puella cum amicis pilā in horto secunda hora ludit.

The differences are mostly in emphasis, not in core meaning.

Why isn’t there any word for “the” in this Latin sentence?

Latin has no definite or indefinite articles like English “the” or “a/an”. Nouns appear without them, and context determines how we translate:

  • puella can be a girl or the girl
  • horto can be a garden or the garden

So we add “the” in English only as needed to make a natural-sounding translation, even though Latin has no separate word for it.

How would this sentence change if we wanted to say “At the second hour the girls play ball with their friends in the garden”?

You mainly need to make the subject and verb plural:

  • Secunda hora puellae cum amicis pila in horto ludunt.

Changes:

  • puella → puellae (nominative plural, the girls)
  • ludit → ludunt (3rd person plural, they play)

Everything else can remain the same. If you wanted to stress that each girl has her own friends, you might also make amicis plural possessive in a fuller context (e.g. cum suis amicis), but that is not strictly required.