Puer illud e mensa tollit et matri ostendit.

Puer is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of a finite verb.

This is one of those second-declension masculine nouns whose nominative singular does not end in -us. Its forms are:

• nominative: puer
• genitive: pueri

So even though it looks a little unusual at first, puer is simply the normal nominative form.

Illud is the neuter singular accusative form of ille, illa, illud, meaning that.

Here it is being used by itself rather than with a noun, so it means something like that thing or that one.

It is accusative because it is the direct object of tollit:

• the boy takes that

And it is also understood as the object of ostendit:

• the boy shows that to his mother

It is neuter because the thing being referred to is either:

• actually a neuter noun, or
• left unspecified, so Latin uses the neuter to mean that thing

If the object were masculine or feminine, you would expect forms like illum or illam instead.

Latin often leaves out a word when it is easily understood from the context.

So in:

• Puer illud e mensa tollit et matri ostendit

the object illud is understood with both verbs:

• he takes that from the table
• and shows it to his mother

English does this too sometimes, but Latin is especially comfortable omitting a repeated word when the meaning is clear.

The preposition e or ex means out of or from, and it takes the ablative case.

So:

• e mensa = from the table

Because mensa is the object of the preposition e, it appears in the ablative singular form mensa.

Both e and ex mean the same thing here: from / out of.

As a general pattern:

• e is commonly used before consonants
• ex is commonly used before vowels or h

Since mensa begins with m, e mensa is perfectly normal.

Matri is in the dative singular, and the dative is the normal case for an indirect object.

So:

• matri ostendit = he shows to the mother / he shows his mother

Latin often uses the dative where English uses to.

That means Latin does not need a preposition here. The ending itself tells you the function:

• matri = to the mother

Both are:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

So they mean:

• tollit = he takes / he lifts / he picks up
• ostendit = he shows

Because both verbs are third person singular, they agree with the singular subject puer.

It can mean several related things, depending on context, such as:

• lifts
• takes up
• takes away
• removes

With e mensa, the sense is something like:

• takes it from the table
• picks it up from the table

So the exact English wording may vary, but the core idea is removal or lifting.

Because it is still the same subject: puer.

Once Latin has given the subject, it often does not repeat it unless there is a reason to emphasize or change it. So:

• Puer ... tollit et matri ostendit

naturally means:

• The boy takes ... and shows ...

with the same boy doing both actions.

Latin often leaves out possessive words like his, her, or their when the possessor is obvious from the context.

So matri can naturally be understood as to his mother if the subject is a boy and the context makes that clear.

If Latin wanted to make it explicit, it could say:

• matri suae = to his own mother

But in many sentences, that extra word is unnecessary.

No. Latin word order is fairly flexible because the endings show each word’s role.

This sentence has a very natural order, but other arrangements could still make sense, such as moving e mensa or placing a verb earlier. The endings tell you that:

• puer is the subject
• illud is the direct object
• mensa is ablative after e
• matri is dative

So the meaning does not depend as heavily on word order as it does in English.