Corvus de trunco ad saxum volat, et canis eum diu spectat.

They are both in the nominative singular, which is the form normally used for the subject of the verb.

• corvus = the raven as the subject of volat
• canis = the dog as the subject of spectat

In other words:

• Corvus ... volat = The raven flies ...
• canis ... spectat = the dog watches ...

Latin uses endings to show a word’s job in the sentence, so the subject does not have to come first.

Because the prepositions de and ad take different cases.

• de takes the ablative
  • trunco is ablative singular of truncus
• ad takes the accusative
  • saxum is accusative singular of saxum

So:

• de trunco = from the trunk
• ad saxum = to/toward the rock

This is a very common Latin pattern: you often learn a preposition together with the case it requires.

Possibly, but the nuance is a little different.

• de often means down from, off, or from
• ex often means out of or from inside

So:

• de trunco suggests movement from or perhaps off/from the trunk
• ex trunco would more strongly suggest coming out of the trunk, as if from inside it

In many beginner sentences, de is used for simple movement away from a place or surface. A learner should mainly remember that de takes the ablative.

Eum is the accusative singular masculine form of is, ea, id, a very common pronoun meaning he, she, it, or that, depending on context.

Here it refers back to corvus, which is a masculine noun. Because of that, Latin uses the masculine pronoun:

• corvus = masculine
• eum = him/it as the direct object

So canis eum diu spectat literally means the dog watches him for a long time, but in natural English we would usually say the dog watches it for a long time, because English often uses it for animals unless we want to emphasize sex or personality.

Eum is accusative singular masculine.

It is the direct object of spectat, so it answers the question whom does the dog watch?

• canis = the dog, the subject
• spectat = watches
• eum = him/it, the object

Latin often shows the object by the accusative ending rather than by word order.

Diu is an adverb meaning for a long time or long.

So:

• canis eum diu spectat = the dog watches him/it for a long time

Because diu is an adverb, it modifies the verb spectat, not a noun.

Latin adverbs are often fairly flexible in position, so you could see diu in a different place without much change in meaning.

Either can be correct, depending on context.

Latin present tense often covers both:

• simple present: flies, watches
• progressive present: is flying, is watching

So:

• Corvus ... volat can mean The raven flies ... or The raven is flying ...
• canis eum diu spectat can mean the dog watches it for a long time or the dog is watching it for a long time

English makes this distinction more explicitly than Latin does.

Yes, Latin word order is much freer than English word order because Latin endings show grammatical function.

This sentence is:

• Corvus de trunco ad saxum volat, et canis eum diu spectat.

But Latin could rearrange parts of it and still keep the same basic meaning, for example:

• De trunco corvus ad saxum volat
• Canis diu eum spectat
• Eum canis diu spectat

The choice of order can affect emphasis, style, or rhythm, but the endings still tell you who is doing what.

English relies much more on position:

• The dog watches the raven is different from
• The raven watches the dog

Latin usually avoids that kind of ambiguity by using case endings.

Classical Latin has no articles like English the or a/an.

So:

• corvus can mean a raven or the raven
• canis can mean a dog or the dog
• saxum can mean a rock or the rock

You decide from the context which English article sounds best.

That is why one Latin sentence can often be translated into English in more than one natural way.

Canis is a noun that can be masculine or feminine, depending on the actual dog being referred to.

In this sentence, the form canis itself could be either masculine nominative singular or feminine nominative singular. The sentence does not explicitly tell us the dog’s sex.

So the safest English translation is simply the dog.

What matters grammatically here is that canis is the subject of spectat.

In Latin, pronouns agree with the grammatical gender of the noun they refer to, not with the natural English idea of it.

• saxum is neuter
• corvus is masculine

Since eum refers to corvus, it must be masculine accusative singular.

If the pronoun referred to saxum, you would expect a neuter form instead.

This is a common adjustment for English speakers: Latin grammatical gender does not always match English pronoun habits.

A simple classroom-style pronunciation would be something like:

COR-wus deh TROON-koh ad SAK-sum WOH-lat, et KAH-nees EH-um DEE-oo SPEK-tat

A few helpful points:

• v in restored Classical pronunciation is like English w
  • corvus sounds roughly like cor-wus
• c is always hard, like k
  • canis, spectat, trunco
• ae would sound like ai, though it does not appear here
• ad keeps its final d
• diu is two vowel sounds together, roughly dee-oo

Pronunciation systems vary a little, especially between Classical and ecclesiastical Latin, but the grammar and meaning stay the same.