Cum pater e tablino exit, puella ei librum amissum ostendit.

the girl

Breakdown of Cum pater e tablino exit, puella ei librum amissum ostendit.

• pater: the father
• liber: the book
• ei: him

Questions & Answers about Cum pater e tablino exit, puella ei librum amissum ostendit.

Why does cum mean when here instead of with?

Because cum can be two different kinds of word:

• as a preposition with the ablative, it means with
• as a conjunction introducing a clause, it can mean when, since, or although

Here it is followed by a whole clause, pater e tablino exit, so it is a conjunction. In this sentence it is temporal, so when is the right sense.

Why is cum followed by exit in the indicative, not the subjunctive?

Latin uses cum with different moods depending on the meaning.

Here the sentence is simply saying when father comes out..., with a straightforward time relationship. For that, Latin commonly uses cum + indicative.

A cum clause with the subjunctive is more common when the clause is circumstantial, causal, or concessive, especially in more literary past narrative.

So:

• cum ... exit = when ... comes out
• not a more interpretive idea like since or although in this context

Why is it e tablino? What case is tablino?