Architectus cum curatore venit.

Because architectus is the subject of the sentence and is in the nominative singular.

For a regular second-declension masculine noun, the nominative singular often ends in -us. So here architectus means the architect as the person doing the action.

Because cum takes the ablative case, and the ablative singular of curator is curatore.

So:

• dictionary form: curator
• ablative singular: curatore

That is why Latin says cum curatore, not cum curator.

Here cum is a preposition meaning with.

When cum is used as a preposition, it normally takes the ablative. That is why the next word is curatore.

So the structure is:

• cum = with
• curatore = ablative singular after cum

Because its subject, architectus, is singular.

The phrase cum curatore does not become part of the subject. It is just a prepositional phrase telling us who accompanies the architect. So the verb agrees only with architectus, not with both nouns together.

If the sentence had two subjects joined together, then you would expect a plural verb.

Yes. Without macrons, venit can be ambiguous.

It may represent:

• venit = he/she comes or is coming (present tense)
• vēnit = he/she came or has come (perfect tense)

Many Latin texts do not print macrons, so you often have to use context to tell which meaning is intended. In a learning sentence, the intended meaning is usually made clear by the translation or lesson.

No. Classical Latin does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So architectus can mean:

• the architect
• an architect

And curatore can mean:

• with the curator
• with a curator

You decide from the context which English version is best.

Yes. Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical roles.

So these could all mean essentially the same thing:

• Architectus cum curatore venit.
• Cum curatore architectus venit.
• Venit architectus cum curatore.

However, different orders can slightly change the emphasis. The version you were given is a very straightforward, neutral order.

You can identify each word like this:

• architectus: nominative singular masculine
  
  • subject
• cum: preposition
  
  • takes the ablative
• curatore: ablative singular masculine
  
  • object of cum
• venit: third person singular verb
  
  • he/she comes or came, depending on context

This is one of the main skills in reading Latin: looking at the endings and asking what job each word is doing.

They are:

• architectus, architecti = architect
• curator, curatoris = curator, manager, supervisor
• venio, venire, veni, ventum = come

When you learn vocabulary, Latin nouns are usually given in a form that helps you identify the declension, and verbs are given in their principal parts.

So from curatore, for example, you learn to recognize that the noun belongs to the third declension and has the base form curator.