Puer laetus inter amicos ambulat.

happy

Breakdown of Puer laetus inter amicos ambulat.

• amicus: the friend
• puer: the boy
• ambulare: to walk

Questions & Answers about Puer laetus inter amicos ambulat.

How do we know that puer is the subject of the sentence?

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.

Why does puer end in -er instead of -us, like servus?

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.

Why is the adjective laetus in that form, and what is it agreeing with?

laetus is an adjective meaning happy. In Latin, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.

• puer is , , .