Nonus puer venit.

Because nonus means ninth, while novem means nine.

• novem = the number nine
• nonus = ninth in a series

So nonus puer means the ninth boy, not nine boys.

Because nonus has to agree with puer.

Latin adjectives agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here, puer is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective must also be masculine singular nominative, which gives nonus.

They are both in the nominative singular.

That is the form normally used for the subject of the sentence. Since the boy is the one doing the action of coming, puer is nominative, and nonus matches it.

Latin usually does not use articles like English the or a/an.

So puer can mean:

• the boy
• a boy

Context tells you which is better in English. The same is true for nonus puer: it can be translated as the ninth boy or a ninth boy, though English usually prefers the ninth boy.

Because puer is already the correct nominative singular form of the word.

Not all masculine Latin nouns end in -us. Some second-declension masculine nouns end in -er, and puer is one of them.

Its dictionary forms are:

• puer = nominative singular
• pueri = genitive singular

So puer is not a shortened form of puerus; puerus is simply not the word.

Yes. In Latin, the verb ending often tells you the subject.

venit means he/she/it comes. The -t ending shows that the verb is third person singular.

So even by itself, venit already means:

• he comes
• she comes
• it comes

The noun puer is added to show exactly who is coming: the boy comes.

Yes, that is a very common beginner question.

Without macrons, venit can represent two different forms:

• venit = comes (present)
• vēnit = came (perfect)

In many printed Latin texts, vowel length is not marked, so you have to use context to decide. If the meaning shown to you is comes, then you should read it as the present tense here.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

Nonus puer venit is a perfectly natural sentence, but Latin could also rearrange the words for emphasis, for example:

• Puer nonus venit
• Venit nonus puer

The basic meaning stays the same because the endings show how the words relate to one another. Still, putting the verb at the end, as in Nonus puer venit, is very common in Latin.

In a common reconstructed Classical pronunciation, you could say it roughly like:

NOH-noos POO-er WEH-nit

A few helpful points:

• Nonus has two syllables: No-nus
• puer has two syllables: pu-er
• Classical Latin v is pronounced like English w, so venit sounds like wenit

If you are using an ecclesiastical pronunciation, v would sound more like English v.