Puer parum bibit, itaque sitim sentit.

Latin has no articles: no separate words for the or a/an.

So puer can mean:

• the boy
• a boy

You figure out which one is meant from the context.

Puer is nominative singular.

That tells you it is the subject of the sentence: the one doing the actions bibit and sentit.

Its dictionary form is also puer = boy.

Latin often leaves out subject pronouns because the verb ending already tells you the person and number.

Both bibit and sentit end in -t, which means third person singular:

• he drinks
• he feels

So Latin does not need to add is (he) unless it wants extra emphasis.

Here parum is an adverb meaning too little, not enough, or simply little.

It modifies bibit, so the idea is:

• he drinks too little
• he does not drink enough

It is not an adjective agreeing with puer. It is describing the action of drinking, not the boy.

It often means too little / not enough, especially in a sentence like this where it leads to a consequence:

Puer parum bibit, itaque sitim sentit.

Because the second clause gives the result, parum is best understood as not enough rather than just a little.

In this sentence, bibit is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• indicative
• active
• from bibere = to drink

So it means he drinks.

A useful extra note: by itself, the spelling bibit can sometimes also be understood as a perfect form (he drank) in Latin, but here the context clearly points to the present: he drinks too little, so he feels thirsty.

Itaque means and so, therefore, or so.

It connects the two ideas:

• first: the boy drinks too little
• then: as a result, he feels thirst / is thirsty

So itaque introduces the consequence.

Because sitim is the accusative singular form of sitis.

The noun is:

• sitis = thirst

But in the sentence, it is the direct object of sentit, so it must be in the accusative:

• nominative: sitis
• accusative: sitim

So sitim sentit literally means he feels thirst.

Sentit is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• indicative
• active
• from sentire = to feel, to perceive

So here it means he feels.

With sitim, the phrase means he feels thirst.

Latin can express this idea in more than one way.

There is a verb sitire, meaning to be thirsty, but Latin also commonly uses a noun with a verb of feeling or having:

• sitim sentire = to feel thirst

So this sentence is very literal:

• The boy drinks too little, and so he feels thirst

In natural English, we would usually say he is thirsty, but the Latin expression is perfectly normal.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammar.

This sentence is arranged as:

• Puer = subject
• parum = adverb
• bibit = verb
• itaque = connector
• sitim = object
• sentit = verb

A very common Latin pattern is to put the verb near the end of the clause, and that is what happens in the second clause with sitim sentit.

If the words were rearranged, the basic meaning could stay the same, as long as the forms still made the grammar clear.

Yes, that is the literal structure.

But in smoother English, you would usually say something like:

• The boy does not drink enough, so he is thirsty.
• The boy drinks too little, so he feels thirsty.

So the Latin is slightly more literal than the most natural English wording.