Cum ancilla aquam hauriret, puella prope puteum cantabat.

Here cum means when: When the slave-girl was drawing water, the girl was singing near the well.

In Latin, cum can have several meanings depending on context, such as when, since, or although. In this sentence, it introduces a time clause.

Because after cum, Latin very often uses the subjunctive when giving background information in a past-time sentence.

So:

• cum ancilla aquam hauriret = when / while the slave-girl was drawing water
• hauriret is imperfect subjunctive

This is very common in narrative Latin. English usually does not show this difference clearly, so it can feel strange to English speakers.

Hauriret comes from the verb haurire, meaning to draw, to scoop up, or to draw water.

Its form here is:

• 3rd person singular
• imperfect subjunctive active

So it means she was drawing or she might be drawing, but in this sentence the sense is simply was drawing within the cum clause.

Cantabat is imperfect because it describes an action in progress in the past: the girl was singing.

The imperfect is often used for:

• ongoing past actions
• background description
• repeated or habitual past actions

Here both actions are presented as ongoing in the past:

• the slave-girl was drawing water
• the girl was singing near the well

Because they belong to different kinds of clauses.

• cantabat is in the main clause, so it is in the indicative
• hauriret is in a cum clause, and this kind of past background cum clause often takes the subjunctive

So the difference is not mainly about time, but about clause type.

Because aquam is the direct object of hauriret.

The verb haurire takes an object: you draw water.

So:

• aqua = water
• aquam = water as the thing being drawn

Because prope takes the accusative case.

So:

• prope = near
• puteum = the well in the accusative after prope

This is something English speakers must get used to: some Latin prepositions require particular cases.

Because each is the subject of its verb.

• ancilla is the subject of hauriret
• puella is the subject of cantabat

Both are singular feminine nouns in the nominative:

• ancilla = slave-girl / maidservant
• puella = girl

Yes. They are different words with different meanings.

• ancilla means female slave, maidservant, or slave-girl
• puella means simply girl

So the sentence is talking about two different female people, not the same person described twice.

Latin usually has no articles.

So:

• ancilla can mean a slave-girl or the slave-girl
• puella can mean a girl or the girl
• puteum can mean a well or the well

You decide from context which English article fits best.

Latin word order is more flexible because the endings show each word’s role.

English depends heavily on word order:

• The girl sang near the well

Latin can move words around more easily because forms like puella, aquam, and puteum already show subject or object relationships.

This sentence is fairly natural Latin:

• Cum ancilla aquam hauriret, puella prope puteum cantabat.

A Latin writer might change the order for emphasis without changing the basic meaning.

Yes. In English, when and while can both work here depending on how you want to express the sense.

Because the verb is imperfect and gives background action, while is often a very natural translation:

• While the slave-girl was drawing water, the girl was singing near the well.

The cum clause gives the background situation, and the main clause gives the main event or scene.

So the sense is something like:

• During the time that the slave-girl was drawing water, the girl was singing near the well.

This is a very common storytelling pattern in Latin: background action in a cum + subjunctive clause, main action in the main clause.

They are:

• cum = when, since, although
• ancilla, ancillae = slave-girl, maidservant
• aqua, aquae = water
• haurio, haurire, hausi, haustum = draw, scoop, draw up
• puella, puellae = girl
• prope = near
• puteus, putei = well
• canto, cantare, cantavi, cantatum = sing

A sentence with cum + indicative is possible in some contexts, but it usually feels more like a straightforward when statement rather than a background narrative cum clause.

Here, the subjunctive hauriret is the normal choice for literary or narrative background. If a learner expects cum ... hauriebat, that is understandable, but Latin often prefers the subjunctive in this kind of sentence.

Yes—three big things:

1. cum in past narrative often introduces a clause with the subjunctive
2. prope takes the accusative
3. The imperfect often describes ongoing background action in the past

So this sentence is a good model of a very common Latin pattern.