Vespere pueri et puellae in horto saltant et cantant.

In the evening the boys and girls dance and sing in the garden.

Breakdown of Vespere pueri et puellae in horto saltant et cantant.

• in: in
• puella: the girl
• puer: the boy
• et: and
• hortus: the garden
• cantare: to sing
• vespere: in the evening
• saltare: to dance

Questions & Answers about Vespere pueri et puellae in horto saltant et cantant.

What does vespere mean, and why is there no word like in or at with it?

Vespere means in the evening / at evening.

Grammatically, vespere is the ablative singular of vesper, vesperis (evening), used as an ablative of time when.

Latin often expresses time when just with the ablative case, without a preposition:

• vespere – in the evening
• nocte – at night
• hieme – in winter

So vespere by itself already means in the evening, and it does not need a separate word for in or at.

Why are pueri and puellae in those forms? What case and number are they?

Both pueri and puellae are nominative plural.

• puer (boy) → pueri (boys)
• puella (girl) → puellae (girls)

The nominative case is normally used for the subject of the sentence. Here, the subjects are the boys and the girls. That is why both words are in the nominative plural.

Why are the verbs saltant and cantant in the plural?

The verbs agree with the subject in person and number.

The subject is pueri et puellae (boys and girls), which is third person plural (more than one person).
Therefore the verbs must also be third person plural:

• from saltare (to dance) → saltant (they dance)
• from cantare (to sing) → cantant (they sing)

So they (the boys and the girls) dance and sing.

What do the endings -i, -ae, and -ant tell me?

These endings give you grammatical information:

• pueri – -i: nominative plural of a second declension masculine noun
• puellae – -ae: nominative plural of a first declension feminine noun
• saltant, cantant – -nt: third person plural ending for they in the present tense
  
  • -ant = stem vowel -a- (first conjugation) + -nt

So from the endings alone you can see:

• there are several boys and several girls
• they are doing the actions now (present tense)
• the subject is third person plural (they)

What case is in horto, and why does horto end in -o?

In horto uses the ablative case.

• The preposition in with the ablative usually means in / on (location).
• hortus (garden) is a second declension masculine noun:
  • nominative singular: hortus
  • genitive singular: horti
  • dative/ablative singular: horto

So in horto literally means in the garden, with horto in the ablative singular because it follows in expressing place where.

Why is the word order Vespere pueri et puellae in horto saltant et cantant and not like English?

Latin word order is much freer than English. A common pattern is:

• Time – Subject – Place – Verb

That is exactly what you see:

• Vespere – in the evening (time)
• pueri et puellae – the boys and the girls (subject)
• in horto – in the garden (place)
• saltant et cantant – dance and sing (verbs)

You could also see other perfectly correct orders, for example:

• Pueri et puellae vespera in horto cantant et saltant.
• In horto vespere pueri et puellae saltant et cantant.

The endings, not the word order, tell you who is doing what to whom.

Why is there no word for the (as in the boys, the garden)?

Classical Latin has no separate words for “the” or “a”.
Whether you translate pueri as boys, the boys, or some boys depends on context, not on a special article:

• pueri – boys / the boys
• horto – in a garden / in the garden

In reading Latin, you choose the or a in English according to what suits the context best.

Does pueri et puellae count as masculine or feminine for the verbs?

When Latin groups masculine and feminine people together, the masculine plural is used by default for agreement.

Here, the verb forms saltant and cantant do not show gender; they just show third person plural. But if there were an adjective referring to both boys and girls, it would be masculine plural, e.g.:

• pueri et puellae laeti sunt – the boys and girls are happy
  (laeti, not laetae, because the group is mixed)

Do saltant and cantant mean that they are doing both actions at the same time?

In this simple present tense sentence, yes, the natural reading is that they are both dancing and singing in the evening in the garden.

Latin present tense is flexible and can be translated in several ways in English:

• they dance
• they are dancing
• sometimes they do dance

But with saltant et cantant side by side, the sense is that both actions are part of what is going on at that time.

Can I say cantant et saltant instead of saltant et cantant?

Yes. Latin allows you to reverse the order:

• Vespere pueri et puellae in horto cantant et saltant.

The meaning is the same: they sing and dance.
Word order here mainly affects emphasis or style, not core meaning. Often the first verb can feel slightly more prominent, but in a simple sentence like this, the difference is minimal.

Why is there et between the nouns and also et between the verbs?

Et means and. Latin can use it:

• between subjects: pueri et puellae – the boys and the girls
• between verbs: saltant et cantant – they dance and sing

You could occasionally see asyndeton (leaving out et) for stylistic effect, but the normal, clear way for a learner is to repeat et where English uses and.

Is vespere the only way to say in the evening?

No, Latin has a few options. Common ones include:

• vespere – in the evening (ablative of time when)
• vesperi – in the evening / at evening (adverbial form or locative-like form)

Both vespere and vesperi are classical and you will see both in texts. In this sentence, vespere is simply one correct way to express in the evening.

How would I change the sentence to say one boy and one girl instead of boys and girls?

You would make the nouns singular and adjust the verb to third person singular:

• Vespere puer et puella in horto saltant et cantant. – the boy and the girl dance and sing in the garden in the evening.

Here, even though puer et puella are two people, Latin very often still uses the plural verb with this kind of compound subject.
However, you can also meet singular agreement with puer et puella, but for learners the plural verbs are the safer and more regular pattern in this type of sentence.