Puer temere scribit, itaque saepius errat.

the boy

Breakdown of Puer temere scribit, itaque saepius errat.

• scribere: to write
• itaque: and so
• saepius: more often

Questions & Answers about Puer temere scribit, itaque saepius errat.

What case is puer, and how do I know it is the subject?

Puer is nominative singular, which is the normal case for the subject of a finite verb.

You can tell it is the subject because:

• scribit = he writes
• errat = he makes mistakes / he errs

So the person doing both actions is the boy.

A useful detail: puer is a second-declension masculine noun, but unlike many second-declension nouns, its nominative singular does not end in -us.

Why is there no word for the before puer?

Latin has no articles. That means it has no direct equivalent of the or a/an.

So puer can mean:

• the boy
• a boy

Which one is best depends on the context. The learner usually supplies the or a when translating into English.

What kind of word is temere?

Temere is an adverb. It modifies scribit and tells us how the boy writes.

So:

• scribit = writes
• temere scribit = writes carelessly / rashly / recklessly

A native English speaker may expect something like careless as an adjective, but here Latin uses the adverb form, just as English says writes carelessly, not writes careless.