Questions & Answers about Puer laetus inter amicos ambulat.
In Latin, the subject is usually in the nominative case.
- puer is the nominative singular form of the noun meaning boy.
- Its dictionary entry would be puer, puerī (m.).
Because puer is nominative and nothing else in the sentence is nominative singular masculine to compete with it, we identify puer as the subject: The boy walks among friends.
Both puer and servus belong to the second declension, but some masculine nouns in this declension have a nominative in -er instead of -us. For example:
- puer, puerī – boy
- ager, agrī – field
So puer is simply an irregular-looking but standard nominative form; it is not puerus. The stem puer- shows up clearly in other cases: puerī, puerō, puerum, etc.
laetus is an adjective meaning happy. In Latin, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.
- puer is , , .