Amica lyram tenet, soror autem citharam pulsat.

Because they are direct objects in the sentence, so they appear in the accusative singular.

• lyra → lyram
• cithara → citharam

Both nouns are first-declension feminine nouns, and -am is the normal accusative singular ending for that declension.

So:

• Amica = the subject, “the girl friend / female friend”
• lyram = the object, “the lyre”

and

• soror = the subject, “the sister”
• citharam = the object, “the cithara”

In Latin, word endings usually tell you that.

Here:

• amica is nominative singular, so it is the subject
• lyram is accusative singular, so it is the object
• soror is nominative singular, so it is the subject
• citharam is accusative singular, so it is the object

So even if the words were rearranged, the endings would still show the grammatical roles.

Because soror belongs to a different declension.

• amica is a first-declension noun
• soror is a third-declension noun

Latin nouns do not all follow the same pattern. Even if two nouns are both feminine and both subjects, they may look different because they belong to different declensions.

For example:

• amica = nominative singular
• soror = nominative singular

They are both subjects here, but they come from different noun patterns.

Autem usually means something like:

• however
• but
• on the other hand
• meanwhile (in some contexts)

In this sentence it marks a contrast between the two parts:

• Amica lyram tenet
• soror autem citharam pulsat

So the sense is something like “The friend holds the lyre, but/on the other hand the sister plays the cithara.”

Because autem is often postpositive in Latin. That means it tends to come after the first word of its clause, not before the whole clause.

So Latin prefers:

• soror autem citharam pulsat

rather than:

• autem soror citharam pulsat

This is a very common feature of words like autem and is worth getting used to early.

Classical Latin does not have articles like English a/an and the.

So:

• amica can mean a friend or the friend
• soror can mean a sister or the sister
• lyram can mean a lyre or the lyre

The exact sense depends on context. When translating into English, you usually choose whichever article sounds most natural.

They are both present tense, third person singular, active voice.

• tenet = he/she/it holds
• pulsat = he/she/it strikes / plays

Because the subjects are singular:

• amica → tenet
• soror → pulsat

If the subjects were plural, the verbs would need plural forms.

They describe different actions.

• tenet means holds
• pulsat literally means strikes, beats, taps
• with a musical instrument, pulsat can mean plays it, especially a stringed instrument that is plucked or struck

So the sentence is not saying the same thing twice. One person is holding an instrument; the other is playing one.

Yes, Latin word order is often more flexible than English word order because the endings show grammatical function.

This sentence could be rearranged in various ways and still mean roughly the same thing, for example:

• Lyram amica tenet, soror autem citharam pulsat.
• Amica tenet lyram, soror autem citharam pulsat.

However, word order can affect emphasis and style. The given version is neat and balanced:

• Amica lyram tenet
• soror autem citharam pulsat

That parallel structure makes it easy to compare the two clauses.

They are words of Greek origin that Latin borrowed.

That is why they may look a little less familiar if you are expecting only very typical Latin vocabulary. Even so, in this sentence they behave like normal first-declension nouns in Latin:

• lyra, lyram
• cithara, citharam

So for grammar purposes, you can treat them like ordinary first-declension nouns.

In a typical Classical Latin pronunciation:

• citharam: the c is always hard, like k
• th is not the English th sound; it is basically a t sound, historically with a little breath after it
• lyram: the y was originally a Greek sound; many learners pronounce it close to i

A simple classroom approximation would be:

• citharam ≈ KI-ta-ram
• lyram ≈ LEE-ram or LI-raṃ, depending on pronunciation style

The exact pronunciation system may vary depending on whether your course uses Classical or Ecclesiastical Latin.

Yes. Amica is the feminine form, so it means female friend.

Compare:

• amicus = male friend
• amica = female friend

Since the meaning has already been supplied to the learner, the main grammar point is that amica is feminine, singular, and nominative here.