Puer matri grātiās agit, quod eum benigne cōnsolātur.

Because puer is in the nominative singular, the case typically used for the subject.

So in Puer matri grātiās agit:

• puer = the boy (subject)
• matri = to his mother / to the mother
• grātiās agit = gives thanks / thanks

Latin often allows freer word order than English, so you cannot rely only on position. The endings tell you the job of each word.

Because matri is dative singular, not nominative.

The expression grātiās agere alicui means to give thanks to someone. The person being thanked goes in the dative case.

So:

• mater = mother as a subject
• matrem = mother as a direct object
• matri = to/for the mother

Here the boy is thanking his mother, so Latin uses matri.

Grātiās agere is a fixed Latin idiom meaning to give thanks or simply to thank.

Literally:

• grātiās = thanks / expressions of gratitude
• agit = drives, does, performs

But you should learn the whole phrase as a unit:

• grātiās agere = to thank
• grātiās agō = I thank
• grātiās agit = he/she thanks

The plural grātiās is normal in this expression, just as English usually says thanks rather than thank.

Here quod means because.

It introduces the reason why the boy is thanking his mother:

• Puer matri grātiās agit = The boy thanks his mother
• quod eum benigne cōnsolātur = because she kindly comforts him

So quod is introducing a causal clause.

The subject is understood to be the mother.

Latin often leaves out subject pronouns when the meaning is clear from context. In the clause quod eum benigne cōnsolātur, there is no explicit noun or pronoun for she, but the sense is:

• because she comforts him kindly

Why do we take it as the mother?

1. The previous clause mentions matri.
2. eum means him, so the one comforting is someone else.
3. In context, the mother is the natural person doing the comforting.

So the implied subject is she, referring to the mother.

Eum is the accusative singular masculine form of is, ea, id, meaning him.

It is the direct object of cōnsolātur:

• cōnsolātur eum = she comforts him

It refers back to puer, the boy.

So the sentence means that the boy thanks his mother because she comforts him.

Because cōnsolor, cōnsolārī, cōnsolātus sum is a deponent verb.

Deponent verbs:

• have passive-looking forms
• but have active meanings

So:

• cōnsolātur looks like is comforted
• but actually means he/she comforts

This is very common in Latin and can feel strange at first. The key is to memorize deponent verbs as special verbs whose forms are passive in shape but active in meaning.

Benigne is an adverb, meaning kindly, graciously, or gently.

It modifies the verb cōnsolātur:

• cōnsolātur = comforts
• benigne cōnsolātur = comforts kindly

It comes from the adjective benignus (kind, kindly, favorable).

Because here the speaker presents the reason as a straightforward fact:

• because she kindly comforts him

Latin commonly uses quod + indicative for a real or asserted reason.

At an elementary level, the main thing to remember is:

• quod
  • indicative often means because

You may later learn more subtle differences between causal clauses with quod, quia, and clauses using the subjunctive, but in this sentence the indicative is the normal and expected choice.

Because Latin verb endings often make an explicit subject pronoun unnecessary.

Cōnsolātur is third person singular, so it means:

• he comforts
• she comforts
• it comforts

The exact subject is supplied by context. Here it must be she, referring to the mother.

English usually needs the pronoun, but Latin often does not.

It matters for emphasis and style, but the case endings do most of the grammatical work.

The sentence is:

• Puer matri grātiās agit, quod eum benigne cōnsolātur.

A more English-like order might be:

• Puer grātiās matri agit
• or even Matri puer grātiās agit

All of these can still mean The boy thanks his mother, because:

• puer is nominative
• matri is dative

So Latin word order is more flexible than English word order, even though some orders sound more natural than others.

Macrons show long vowels:

• ā, ē, ī, ō, ū

So:

• grātiās has long ā and ī
• cōnsolātur has long ō, ā

Macrons are very useful for pronunciation and sometimes for distinguishing forms, but many printed Latin texts omit them. For learners, though, they are helpful and worth paying attention to.