Mater clamat: “Sta, puer!”

Sta is the singular imperative of stare, meaning stand! or, in context, sometimes stop!

It is a command addressed to one person.

• sta! = command to one person
• state! = command to more than one person

So here the mother is speaking to one boy.

Because puer is being used in direct address, so it is in the vocative case. For many Latin nouns, the vocative has a special form, but with puer the vocative is the same as the nominative.

So:

• nominative: puer = the boy / boy
• vocative: puer! = boy!

This can feel surprising to English speakers, because English does not usually change noun forms for direct address.

Latin does not have articles like English the or a/an.

So mater can mean:

• mother
• a mother
• the mother

And puer can mean:

• boy
• a boy
• the boy

You understand which one is meant from the context.

Clamat is the 3rd person singular present active indicative of clamare, meaning to shout or to call out.

The ending -t tells you the subject is he/she/it.

So clamat means:

• he shouts
• she shouts
• it shouts

Since the subject here is mater, it means mother shouts or the mother shouts.

Because Latin often includes the subject noun even when the verb ending already tells you the person and number.

The verb clamat already tells us someone singular is doing the action, but mater tells us who that someone is.

Latin can omit subject pronouns very easily, but nouns are still often stated for clarity or emphasis.

So:

• clamat = she shouts / he shouts
• mater clamat = mother shouts

Yes. Latin word order is more flexible than English word order, because the endings carry much of the grammatical information.

This sentence could be rearranged in other ways, for example:

• Clamat mater: Sta, puer!
• Mater: Sta, puer! clamat. (less natural in a simple beginner sentence, but possible in certain styles)

The given order, Mater clamat, is straightforward and easy for learners: first the subject, then the verb.

The comma separates the command from the person being addressed.

So:

• Sta = the command
• puer = the person being spoken to

In English we do the same thing:

• Stop, boy!
• Come here, John!

The comma helps show that puer is not the subject of the verb. It is a vocative, not the doer of the action.

The colon introduces direct speech: it signals that the exact words spoken are coming next.

So:

• Mater clamat: = Mother shouts:
• Sta, puer! = the actual words she says

In printed Latin, punctuation is mostly a modern editorial aid. Ancient Latin manuscripts did not use punctuation in the same standardized way that modern texts do.

If macrons are written, the sentence would usually appear as:

Māter clāmat: Stā, puer!

Macrons show long vowels:

• Māter
• clāmat
• stā

But many Latin texts for beginners or general readers leave macrons out, so Mater clamat: Sta, puer! is completely normal as a written form.

In the restored classical pronunciation, a simple guide would be:

• Māter ≈ MAA-ter
• clāmat ≈ KLAA-mat
• stā ≈ staa
• puer ≈ PU-err or PU-er

A few helpful points:

• c in clamat is always hard, like k
• ā is a long vowel
• puer has two vowel sounds: pu-er, not like English pure

So the whole sentence is roughly:

MAA-ter KLAA-mat: staa, PU-er!