Puer fere ad pontem pervenerat, cum mater eum revocavit.

Because puer is the subject of the main verb pervenerat.

• puer = the boy
• nominative singular masculine
• it answers who had almost reached the bridge? → the boy

In Latin, the subject is normally put in the nominative case.

fere means almost or nearly.

Here it modifies the idea of reaching the bridge:

• fere ... pervenerat = had almost reached

So the sentence does not mean that the boy actually reached the bridge. It means he came close to reaching it.

ad takes the accusative case and usually means to, toward, or up to.

• ad = to / toward
• pontem = accusative singular of pons, meaning bridge

So ad pontem means to the bridge or up to the bridge.

With verbs of motion, Latin often uses ad + accusative to show movement toward a place.

Because pontem is the accusative singular form, and it is required by the preposition ad.

The noun is:

• nominative: pons = bridge
• accusative: pontem = bridge, as the object of ad

So once you see ad, you should expect the accusative.

pervenerat is pluperfect indicative active of pervenio.

It means he had reached.

In this sentence, the pluperfect shows an action that was already underway or nearly completed before the other past action happened:

• Puer fere ad pontem pervenerat = The boy had almost reached the bridge
• cum mater eum revocavit = when his mother called him back

So the pluperfect helps show that the reaching came earlier than the calling back.

pervenio means I arrive, I reach, or I come through to.

Its principal parts are:

• pervenio
• pervenire
• perveni
• perventum

Here the form pervenerat means he had reached.

A learner should notice that English often says reach the bridge, while Latin may say reach to the bridge with ad pontem, depending on the construction.

Because cum can have several meanings, and here it is a temporal conjunction meaning when.

In this sentence, it introduces the time when the main action was interrupted or answered by another action:

• cum mater eum revocavit = when his mother called him back

This is not the preposition cum meaning with.
You can tell because here cum introduces a clause with a verb, revocavit.

revocavit is perfect tense, meaning called back.

The perfect is natural here because it presents the mother’s action as a single completed event in the story:

• the boy had almost reached the bridge
• then his mother called him back

So the perfect gives a clear narrative event.

eum means him.

It is accusative singular masculine because it is the direct object of revocavit:

• mater = the mother, the subject
• eum = him, the person she called back

It refers back to puer.

So Latin uses the pronoun to make clear whom the mother called back.

Not easily in this sentence if the writer wants to say called him back.

Latin often omits subject pronouns, but direct object pronouns are different. Here eum is needed to show who was called back.

Without eum, mater revocavit would just mean the mother called back or recalled, but it would not explicitly say whom.

revocavit comes from revoco:

• re- = back
• voco = call

So it literally means called back.

That is a very helpful example of how Latin prefixes change meaning.
The verb is not just called but specifically called back.

Latin word order is flexible, but the order here is very natural for storytelling.

First Latin sets the scene:

• Puer fere ad pontem pervenerat = the boy had almost reached the bridge

Then it gives the event that happened at that moment:

• cum mater eum revocavit = when his mother called him back

So the order helps the sentence build suspense: first the boy nearly gets there, then the mother stops him.

Yes. It shows a very common pattern:

• pluperfect for an earlier or already-developed past action: pervenerat
• perfect for the main event that occurs in the story: revocavit

So the sentence distinguishes:

• what had almost happened already
• what then happened to interrupt or affect it

This is one of the most useful tense contrasts for reading Latin narrative.