Puella librum amissum tandem recipit.

The girl finally gets back the lost book.

Breakdown of Puella librum amissum tandem recipit.

• puella: the girl
• liber: the book
• tandem: finally
• amissus: lost

Questions & Answers about Puella librum amissum tandem recipit.

Why is puella the subject of the sentence?

Because puella is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject of a finite verb in Latin.

• puella = girl
• nominative singular of a first-declension noun

So puella is the girl, the one doing the action of recipit.

Why is it librum and not liber?

Because librum is the accusative singular form, which marks the direct object.

• liber = nominative singular, book as subject
• librum = accusative singular, book as object

In this sentence, the book is what the girl gets back, so Latin uses the accusative: librum.

Why does amissum also end in -um?

Because amissum is describing librum, and adjectives in Latin must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• librum = masculine, singular, accusative
• amissum = masculine, singular, accusative

So amissum matches librum exactly. It means lost or mislaid, so librum amissum means the lost book.