Puer parvam avem super murum videt.

Because parvam describes avem, and Latin adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in gender, number, and case.

Here, avem is:

• feminine
• singular
• accusative

So the adjective parva changes to parvam to match it.

This is different from English, where small stays the same no matter what noun it describes.

Avis is the basic dictionary form, called the nominative singular. But in this sentence, the bird is the direct object of videt (sees), so it must be in the accusative case.

So:

• avis = bird as subject
• avem = bird as direct object

Latin uses endings to show the job a word is doing in the sentence.

Because puer is the subject of the sentence: the boy is the one doing the seeing. Subjects are normally put in the nominative case.

So puer is nominative singular, meaning the boy.

This word belongs to the second declension, but unlike many second-declension masculine nouns, it keeps the form puer in the nominative instead of ending in -us.

Videt is the verb and means he sees or she sees.

Its ending -et tells you that it is:

• third person
• singular
• present tense

So the subject is he, she, or it. Since the subject here is puer (boy), we understand it as he sees.

Latin often does not need a separate word for he or she, because the verb ending already tells you that.

Latin has no articles. That means there is no separate word exactly equal to English the or a/an.

So puer can mean:

• the boy
• a boy

And avem can mean:

• the bird
• a bird

You figure out which one sounds best from the context.

Because super is a preposition, and here it is followed by the accusative case: murum.

With super, Latin can use different cases depending on the meaning, but in many beginner sentences you will often see:

• super
  • accusative = over, above, or sometimes on/onto

Here murum is the accusative singular of murus, meaning wall.

So super murum means something like over the wall or above the wall, depending on the intended meaning.

Because after the preposition super in this sentence, the noun is in the accusative case.

So:

• murus = nominative singular, wall as subject
• murum = accusative singular, used here after the preposition

This is another example of Latin using case endings where English uses mostly word order.

Usually it describes where the bird is: the boy sees a small bird over the wall.

In other words, super murum most naturally goes with avem, not with puer.

However, Latin word groups can sometimes be interpreted in more than one way if context is limited. In a simple teaching sentence like this one, the usual understanding is that the bird is over the wall.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because Latin endings show each word’s role.

In English, word order is very important:

• The boy sees the bird is not the same as
• The bird sees the boy

In Latin, the endings already tell you who is doing what:

• puer = subject
• avem = object

So Latin can move words around more freely for emphasis or style.
This sentence happens to be fairly easy for an English speaker, but even if the order changed, the endings would still guide you.

Yes, very often.

For example, these could still mean essentially the same thing:

• Puer parvam avem super murum videt.
• Parvam avem puer super murum videt.
• Super murum puer parvam avem videt.

The exact emphasis may change, but the core meaning stays clear because of the case endings:

• puer = subject
• parvam avem = direct object
• super murum = prepositional phrase
• videt = verb

Latin often places the verb at the end, but that is not a fixed rule.

It does because Latin allows adjectives to come before or after the noun.

So both of these are possible:

• parvam avem
• avem parvam

Both mean small bird.

Word order with adjectives can be affected by style, emphasis, or author preference. A beginner should mainly focus on the fact that parvam matches avem in gender, number, and case.

Avis is feminine.

You usually learn a noun’s gender from the dictionary entry, not just from the sentence. The adjective helps confirm it here:

• parvam is a feminine accusative singular form
• so it must be agreeing with a feminine noun, avem

In Latin, grammatical gender does not always match biological sex. A word can be grammatically feminine even if it refers to an animal whose sex is not specified.

Here is a full breakdown:

• Puer

  • noun
  • nominative singular
  • masculine
  • subject
  • boy

• parvam

  • adjective
  • accusative singular
  • feminine
  • modifies avem
  • small

• avem

  • noun
  • accusative singular
  • feminine
  • direct object
  • bird

• super

  • preposition
  • here used with the accusative
  • over / above

• murum

  • noun
  • accusative singular
  • masculine
  • object of super
  • wall

• videt

  • verb
  • present active indicative
  • third person singular
  • sees

A simple classroom-style pronunciation would be:

POO-er PAR-vam AH-wem SOO-per MOO-rum WEE-det

A few notes:

• v is often pronounced like an English w in restored classical pronunciation, so avem sounds like ah-wem
• c is always hard in classical Latin, though there is no c in this sentence
• e is always pronounced clearly, never silent

Different schools may teach slightly different pronunciation systems, especially classical versus ecclesiastical Latin.