Breakdown of Cotidie prima hora medicus in oppidum venit, secunda hora autem medica ad scholam ambulat.
Questions & Answers about Cotidie prima hora medicus in oppidum venit, secunda hora autem medica ad scholam ambulat.
Cotidie means “every day”.
It is an adverb, so it does not change its form and is quite free in its position. You most often see it near the beginning of the sentence, as here:
- Cotidie prima hora medicus in oppidum venit
“Every day, at the first hour, the doctor comes into the town.”
It could also appear later (for example after medicus) without changing the basic meaning, though the usual, neutral place is near the start.
Hora is a feminine noun meaning “hour”, and prima / secunda are feminine adjectives (“first / second”).
Both prima hora and secunda hora are in the ablative singular.
This is an example of the ablative of time when, where Latin uses the ablative (usually without a preposition) to say “at [a certain time]”:
- prima hora = “at the first hour”
- secunda hora = “at the second hour”
So the sentence literally says:
“Every day, at the first hour the (male) doctor comes into the town, at the second hour however the (female) doctor walks to the school.”
Latin adjectives can usually go before or after the noun. Both prima hora and hora prima are grammatically correct and mean “the first hour.”
Certain patterns are more common:
- With ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.), putting the adjective before the noun (as in prima hora) is very usual.
- Putting ordinals after the noun is still possible but tends to sound more marked or stylistic.
So prima hora is simply the normal, idiomatic arrangement here.
Yes, they are related but different forms:
- medicus (second declension, masculine) = a male doctor
- medica (first declension, feminine) = a female doctor
Latin often has masculine and feminine forms of professions, and here the sentence deliberately contrasts them:
- medicus … venit – “the (male) doctor comes”
- medica … ambulat – “the (female) doctor walks”
Latin has no articles (no equivalent of English “the” or “a/an”).
The bare noun medicus can be translated as:
- “a doctor”
- “the doctor”
Context decides which is better in English. Since the sentence describes a regular, repeated situation (a specific daily routine), English tends to prefer “the doctor”, but Latin doesn’t mark that difference in the noun itself.
Latin word order is much freer than English, because case endings show who is doing what. The typical neutral order is often Subject – Object – Verb, but elements can move around for emphasis or rhythm.
In both clauses here, we have:
- An expression of time: prima hora / secunda hora
- The subject: medicus / medica
- A phrase of direction: in oppidum / ad scholam
- The verb: venit / ambulat
So:
- prima hora medicus in oppidum venit
- secunda hora autem medica ad scholam ambulat
The word order is perfectly normal; Latin is not as strict as English about where each piece must go, as long as the endings are clear.
The preposition in can take either the accusative or the ablative, with different meanings:
in
- accusative = into / onto (motion towards / into a place)
- in oppidum = “into the town”
in
- ablative = in / on (location at / in a place)
- in oppido = “in the town”
In the sentence, in oppidum venit uses the accusative (oppidum) because the doctor is going into the town, not just located there.
Both ad and in with the accusative can express motion, but there is a nuance:
- ad scholam = “to(wards) the school”, focusing on direction / destination.
- in scholam = “into the school”, focusing on entering inside the building/place.
In this sentence, ad scholam ambulat suggests the female doctor is walking to the school (going there), without necessarily emphasizing the act of going inside the school building. Latin tends to use ad very commonly to mean “to” in this directional sense.
Schola is a first-declension feminine noun meaning “school”.
Its accusative singular form is scholam:
- Nominative: schola – “school” (as subject)
- Accusative: scholam – “school” (as object of a verb or preposition)
Because ad always takes the accusative, we must use scholam after ad:
- ad scholam = “to the school”
Venit can be either:
- present tense: “he/she/it comes”
- perfect tense: “he/she/it came”
The form is the same in spelling; context decides.
Here, the adverb cotidie (“every day”) and the time expressions prima hora / secunda hora show a regular, repeated action, so we understand venit and ambulat as present tense:
- venit = “comes”
- ambulat = “walks”
If the context were purely in the past and not habitual, then venit could be translated “came.”
Autem usually means “however”, “but,” or sometimes just a mild contrastive “and.”
It is a postpositive conjunction, which means it cannot stand first in its clause. It usually appears in second position, often after the first word or phrase:
- secunda hora autem medica ad scholam ambulat
“At the second hour, however, the (female) doctor walks to the school.”
If you were to translate word by word, it’s roughly:
- “Second hour however the-doctress to the-school walks.”
But in English we move “however” to where it sounds natural:
“At the second hour, however, the doctor walks to the school.”
Latin often prefers to place the finite verb at the end of the clause, especially in simple sentences. This is a very common and neutral pattern:
- Subject – other information – Verb
So:
- medicus in oppidum venit
- medica ad scholam ambulat
Both are completely normal Latin. The language is flexible enough that sometimes a verb comes earlier (for emphasis, rhythm, or style), but end-position is very typical.
Yes. There are two Latin forms: cotidie and quotidie. Both are classical and mean “every day, daily.”
The English word “quotidian” comes from quotidie.
The spelling in your sentence, cotidie, is just the variant without the qu-. They are effectively the same adverb in practical usage.