Canis lepori latrare incipit, sed pater eum revocat.

Because latrare often takes a dative for the person or animal being barked at.

• lepori = to/at the hare
• Latin: alicui latrare = to bark at someone

So English uses at, but Latin often uses the dative case instead.

This is a very common Latin pattern:

• incipit = begins
• latrare = to bark

So latrare incipit literally means begins to bark.

English often prefers starts barking, but Latin regularly uses a finite verb + infinitive here.

Canis is nominative singular. It is the subject of incipit.

So canis is the one doing the action of beginning to bark.

Lepori is dative singular, from the dictionary form lepus, leporis.

Its role is the animal at which the dog is barking. With latrare, that target is commonly put in the dative.

Pater is nominative singular. It is the subject of revocat in the second clause.

So in the second half of the sentence, the father is the one doing the action.

Eum is accusative singular masculine. It is the direct object of revocat.

• eum = him
• ei = to him / for him

Since the father is calling him back, Latin needs the direct object, so eum is correct.

It refers to canis.

Grammatically, eum is masculine singular, and more than one masculine singular noun appears earlier, so in theory you might pause for a moment. But the context makes it clear: the father is calling back the dog, not the hare.

No. Canis can be masculine or feminine, depending on the sex of the dog or the way the writer chooses to treat it.

In this sentence, the pronoun eum shows that the dog is being treated as masculine.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show each word's role.

English depends heavily on word order:

• The father calls him back

Latin can move words around more easily because:

• pater is clearly nominative
• eum is clearly accusative

So the sentence does not need to follow strict English-style order to be understood.

Latin has no articles.

So:

• canis can mean the dog or a dog
• pater can mean the father or a father

The context tells you which is more natural in translation.

Revocat comes from revoco, revocare.

Its basic idea is call back or call away from what someone is doing.

So here it means that the father calls the dog back. That is more precise than simply saying calls him.

Here are the main forms a learner would look up:

• canis, canis = dog
• lepus, leporis = hare
• latro, latrare = bark
• incipio, incipere = begin
• sed = but
• pater, patris = father
• is, ea, id = he, she, it; that
• revoco, revocare = call back

Knowing the dictionary form helps explain why some of these forms look different in the sentence, especially lepori and eum.

A good way is to divide it into two parts:

• Canis lepori latrare incipit
• sed pater eum revocat

Then identify the main pieces:

First clause:

• canis = subject
• incipit = main verb
• latrare = infinitive with incipit
• lepori = dative with latrare

Second clause:

• pater = subject
• revocat = main verb
• eum = direct object

That kind of step-by-step parsing is often the easiest way to read Latin confidently.