Vēritās interdum dolōrem affert, sed amicitiam servat.

Vēritās is nominative singular, and it is the subject because it is the thing doing the actions of the verbs affert and servat.

A learner might parse it like this:

• vēritās = truth
• affert = brings
• servat = preserves / keeps

So truth is what brings pain and preserves friendship.

Also, vēritās is a third-declension noun:

• nominative singular: vēritās
• genitive singular: vēritātis

That -ās ending here is not first declension; it belongs to this third-declension noun.

They are in the accusative singular because they are the direct objects of the verbs.

• dolōrem is the object of affert: truth brings pain
• amicitiam is the object of servat: truth preserves friendship

In Latin, direct objects are very often put in the accusative case.

So the structure is:

• vēritās ... dolōrem affert
• vēritās ... amicitiam servat

Both verbs are transitive here, so each takes an accusative object.

Interdum is an adverb, meaning sometimes.

It modifies the verb affert:

• vēritās interdum dolōrem affert = truth sometimes brings pain

It tells us how often the action happens.

A useful point for English speakers: Latin adverbs often have fairly flexible placement. So interdum could appear in a different position without changing the basic meaning much. Here it is placed between the subject and object/verb, which is very natural Latin.

Because affert comes from the irregular verb afferō, which means bring to, bring, carry to.

It is a compound of:

• ad- = to, toward
• ferō = I carry, I bring

Because ferō is irregular, compounds built from it are also irregular.

So:

• afferō = I bring
• affers = you bring
• affert = he/she/it brings

This is why it does not look like a regular first-, second-, third-, or fourth-conjugation verb.

A learner may also see the spelling adfert in some texts. Both spellings are connected to the same verb, but affert is the common classical spelling.

Servat is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from servō, servāre, meaning to preserve, save, keep, maintain.

So servat means:

• he preserves
• she preserves
• it preserves

In this sentence, the subject is vēritās (truth), so the natural translation is truth preserves or truth keeps.

Unlike affert, this is a very regular verb from the first conjugation.

Because Latin usually does not need an expressed subject pronoun when the verb ending already tells you the person and number.

Here both verbs are third person singular:

• affert = it brings
• servat = it preserves

Since vēritās has already been stated as the subject, Latin does not need to repeat it.

English often wants:

• Truth sometimes brings pain, but it preserves friendship.

Latin naturally says:

• Vēritās interdum dolōrem affert, sed amicitiam servat.

The subject vēritās is understood with both verbs.

Sed means but.

It connects two contrasting ideas:

• vēritās interdum dolōrem affert
• sed amicitiam servat

So the sentence sets up a contrast:

• truth may cause pain,
• but it also preserves friendship.

This is very similar to English but. It is one of the most common coordinating conjunctions in Latin.

The word order here is natural, but Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because the endings show grammatical roles.

This sentence is arranged as:

• subject: vēritās
• adverb: interdum
• object: dolōrem
• verb: affert
• conjunction: sed
• object: amicitiam
• verb: servat

That is a very normal Latin pattern, especially with the verbs near the ends of their clauses.

But Latin could change the order for emphasis. For example:

• Interdum vēritās dolōrem affert, sed amicitiam servat.
• Dolōrem interdum vēritās affert, sed amicitiam servat.

These still mean essentially the same thing, though the emphasis shifts a bit. English speakers often have to learn not to rely only on position; in Latin, the endings matter most.

Amicitiam is singular because the sentence is talking about friendship as a general relationship or bond, not about multiple separate friendships one by one.

Latin often uses the singular for an abstract idea:

• vēritās = truth
• dolor = pain
• amicitia = friendship

A plural could be possible in a different context, but the singular is the most natural choice for a broad statement like this. It sounds like a general truth: truth may hurt, but it preserves friendship.

They belong to different declensions:

• vēritās, vēritātis = third declension, feminine
• dolor, dolōris = third declension, masculine
• amicitia, amicitiae = first declension, feminine

Their forms in the sentence are:

• vēritās = nominative singular
• dolōrem = accusative singular
• amicitiam = accusative singular

This is a good sentence for noticing that Latin nouns do not all follow one pattern. English speakers often expect endings to work more uniformly than they actually do in Latin.

Those lines are called macrons. They show that the vowel is long.

For example:

• vēritās: the first ē is long
• dolōrem: the ō is long

Macrons are very helpful for learners because they show vowel length, which matters for:

• pronunciation
• meter in poetry
• sometimes distinguishing forms

However, many Latin texts for general reading do not print macrons, so you might also see the sentence written as:

• Veritas interdum dolorem affert, sed amicitiam servat.

That is the same sentence, just without vowel-length marking.

Yes. It is a good example of a gnomic or general statement: a broad truth expressed in the present indicative.

Latin often uses the present tense for statements like:

• Truth sometimes brings pain
• Truth preserves friendship

This is just like English using the simple present for general truths.

So the present tense here does not mean only what is happening right now. It means something like:

• this is often the case
• this is generally true

That is a very common use of the present in both Latin and English.