Postquam puer sanus erat, puer cum sorore pila iterum ludebat.

After the boy was healthy, the boy was again playing with the ball with his sister.

Breakdown of Postquam puer sanus erat, puer cum sorore pila iterum ludebat.

• esse: to be
• puer: the boy
• soror: the sister
• cum: with
• ludere: to play
• postquam: after
• iterum: again
• pila: the ball
• sanus: healthy

Questions & Answers about Postquam puer sanus erat, puer cum sorore pila iterum ludebat.

What does postquam mean, and what kind of clause does it introduce?

Postquam is a conjunction meaning after (in the sense after (the fact that), after something has happened or become true).

It introduces a time clause that tells you when the action of the main clause happened:

• Postquam puer sanus erat – After the boy was healthy / once the boy was healthy
• …, puer cum sorore pila iterum ludebat. – …, the boy was (then) playing ball again with his sister.

So everything from postquam up to the comma is a subordinate time clause depending on the main clause with ludebat.

Why is the verb in the postquam-clause erat and not something like fuit or fuerat?

All three forms are past tense forms of esse (to be), but they have different nuances:

• erat – imperfect: he was (ongoing state in the past)
• fuit – perfect: he was / has been (completed past event or state)
• fuerat – pluperfect: he had been (state completed before another past event)

Here, erat presents being healthy as a continuing condition in the past, existing when the playing happens:

• Postquam puer sanus erat – literally, after the boy was (already) healthy, or since the boy was healthy.

If you wrote:

• Postquam puer sanus fuit – classical Latin would often use this pattern, and English would usually translate it After the boy had become healthy, … (a completed change of state before the main action).
• Postquam puer sanus fuerat – even more clearly After the boy had been healthy (for some time), …; the health is clearly anterior to some later past reference point.

In many teaching texts, using erat keeps the grammar simpler and focuses on ongoing past state rather than a completed event.

How does sanus work grammatically with puer?

Sanus is an adjective meaning healthy. It is used predicatively here, linked to the subject by erat:

• puer sanus erat – the boy was healthy

Grammar points:

• puer is nominative singular, masculine, 2nd declension.
• sanus is nominative singular, masculine, 1st/2nd declension adjective.

Adjectives in Latin agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender (masculine: puer, sanus)
• number (singular)
• case (nominative, as subject complement)

The word order puer sanus vs sanus puer is flexible; the agreement is shown by endings, not position.

Why is puer repeated in the main clause? Could we leave it out?

Latin often omits the subject pronoun because the verb ending shows the person and number. Here:

• ludebat by itself already means he/she was playing.

Because the subject of both clauses is the same boy, you could absolutely write:

• Postquam puer sanus erat, cum sorore pila iterum ludebat.

This is perfectly good Latin: After the boy was healthy, he was again playing ball with his sister.

So why might a textbook repeat puer?

• For clarity for beginners (to make sure you see who is doing what).
• To show that Latin can explicitly repeat the noun if the writer wants to emphasize or keep things very clear.

Stylistically, more natural Latin would often omit the second puer.

What case is sorore, and why is it in that case?

Sorore is ablative singular of soror, sororis (sister).

It is governed by the preposition cum:

• cum sorore – with (his) sister

Cum regularly takes the ablative, so:

• cum amico – with a friend
• cum matre – with (his) mother
• cum sorore – with (his) sister

I’ve seen forms like mecum and tecum. Why is cum in front of sorore here?

With most nouns, cum is placed before the noun:

• cum sorore – with (his) sister
• cum amico – with a friend

With certain personal pronouns, Latin often attaches cum onto the end of the pronoun:

• mecum – with me (from cum me)
• tecum – with you (sg.)
• nobiscum – with us
• vobiscum – with you (pl.)

So cum sorore is the regular pattern for a noun. The post‑position (mecum, etc.) is a special, very common exception only for those pronouns.

What case is pila, and why is there no preposition like cum in front of it?

Pila here is ablative singular of pila, pilae (ball).

In Latin, ludere (to play) often takes an ablative of means / instrument to show what you are playing with:

• pila ludere – to play with a ball
• tali ludere – to play with dice

So in:

• puer cum sorore pila ludebat

we have:

• cum sorore – with his sister (ablative with cum, ablative of accompaniment)
• pila – with a ball (ablative of means, no preposition needed)

English uses with twice (with his sister with a ball), but Latin expresses one with by a preposition (cum sorore) and the other simply by the ablative (pila).

Could pila be nominative or accusative here?

Formally, pila could be:

• nominative singular
• vocative singular
• ablative singular

But context and syntax show it cannot be nominative here:

• The subject is already puer in the main clause.
• Pila does not agree with the verb ending -bat (3rd sg.), which already has puer as subject.

It is also not accusative, because:

• 1st‑declension accusative singular ends in -am (pilam).
• The verb ludere is typically intransitive and does not take a direct object in standard usage.

So pila is best understood as ablative singular of means: playing with a ball.

Why is ludebat in the imperfect tense, not the perfect?

Ludebat is the imperfect indicative active of ludere.

• ludebat – he was playing / he used to play (ongoing, repeated, or background action in the past)
• lusit – perfect: he played (a single, completed action)

The imperfect here suggests:

• a continuing action after he became healthy, or
• a habitual / repeated action (he played again, perhaps on several occasions).

So:

• puer … ludebat – the boy was (again) playing or used to play again
  rather than
• puer … lusit – the boy (once) played again (more like one finished event).

The combination with iterum (again) and the background postquam‑clause fits naturally with the imperfect: his normal activity resumes and goes on.

How would the meaning change if it were Postquam puer sanus fuit, puer cum sorore pila iterum lusit?

This version would feel more like two completed events in sequence:

• Postquam puer sanus fuit – After the boy had become healthy (completed result; classical Latin often uses perfect here but translates like an English pluperfect).
• puer … lusit – the boy played (once) with his sister again.

So:

• Original: was healthy (ongoing state) and was playing / used to play (ongoing / repeated).
• Changed: became healthy (a completed change) and then played (a completed action) afterwards.

The original sentence is more continuous / habitual, the altered one more event-like and punctual.

What does iterum mean, and what does it modify?

Iterum is an adverb meaning again.

In this sentence it modifies the verb ludebat:

• puer … pila iterum ludebat – the boy was playing ball again.

Word order in Latin is flexible, but adverbs like iterum:

• typically stand near the verb they qualify,
• and often just before it or somewhere in the main clause where they are easily associated with the action.

You could also see:

• puer iterum cum sorore pila ludebat
• puer cum sorore iterum pila ludebat

The meaning again still goes with was playing.

Can the word order of the main clause be changed, for example to puer iterum cum sorore pila ludebat?

Yes. Latin has flexible word order, because relationships are mostly shown by endings rather than strict position.

All of the following are grammatically fine and mean essentially the same thing:

• puer cum sorore pila iterum ludebat
• puer iterum cum sorore pila ludebat
• puer cum sorore iterum pila ludebat
• puer pila cum sorore iterum ludebat

Subtle differences of emphasis can arise (putting iterum earlier can lightly emphasize again; moving pila or cum sorore can highlight them), but at a beginner level you can treat them all as the boy was again playing ball with his sister.

How would I say After the boy had become healthy… more literally in Latin?

A more explicitly change‑of‑state, prior‑to‑another‑past version could be:

• Postquam puer sanus factus est, puer cum sorore pila iterum ludebat.
  (literally: After the boy became healthy / after the boy has become healthy… – Latin perfect often corresponds to English pluperfect here.)

Or, using the pluperfect:

• Postquam puer sanus factus erat, puer cum sorore pila iterum ludebat.
  (After the boy had become healthy, …)

Here factus est / factus erat (from fieri or passive of facere) explicitly expresses becoming healthy, not just being healthy.

Does postquam ever take the subjunctive?

Normally, postquam is followed by the indicative, as in your sentence:

• postquam puer sanus erat – after the boy was healthy

Classical Latin standard usage is:

• postquam
  • perfect indicative (very common)
• sometimes imperfect / pluperfect indicative for states or background

The subjunctive is not the regular mood after postquam. When you see a subjunctive after a similar time conjunction, it is more likely after cum in its narrative use (cum historicum), not after postquam.

Why is there no word for his before sorore?

Latin often omits possessive pronouns (his, her, their) where English requires them, especially when the possessor is obvious from context.

Here:

• The subject is puer.
• sorore is sister.
• In a simple story, with the sister will naturally be understood as with his own sister.

You could add the reflexive possessive:

• cum sorore sua – with his (own) sister

This is correct and explicit, but not required. Latin leaves sua out very often unless:

• there might otherwise be ambiguity, or
• the writer wants special emphasis on whose sister it is.

Could the second puer be replaced with a pronoun like is?

Yes, that is possible:

• Postquam puer sanus erat, is cum sorore pila iterum ludebat.

Here is (he) refers back to puer. However:

• Classical Latin often either omits the subject entirely (… cum sorore pila iterum ludebat) when it is clear from context, or
• simply repeats the noun (puer) if there is any chance of confusion.

Using is is not wrong, but in straightforward narrative Latin tends to prefer either ellipsis or repetition over 3rd‑person pronouns where English would say he.