Puer non iam timet, quia mater adest.

the boy

Breakdown of Puer non iam timet, quia mater adest.

• mater: the mother
• timere: to fear
• quia: because

Questions & Answers about Puer non iam timet, quia mater adest.

Why is there no word for the in Puer and mater?

Latin has no definite article like English the and no indefinite article like a/an.

So:

• puer can mean the boy or a boy
• mater can mean the mother or a mother

You figure out which is meant from the context. In this sentence, English naturally uses the boy and the mother.

What case are puer and mater, and how do we know?

Both puer and mater are in the nominative singular, because they are the subjects of their verbs:

• Puer ... timet = The boy fears / is afraid
• mater adest = the mother is present / is here

A native English speaker often looks first for word order, but in Latin it is usually the endings and the form of the noun that tell you its job in the sentence.

Why is it puer and not something ending in -us, like many Latin masculine nouns?

Because puer is a regular type of second-declension masculine noun that keeps the -er in the nominative singular.

Its forms begin like this:

• nominative: =