Puer amorem matris sentit.

In Latin, the endings usually tell you that.

• puer is in the nominative singular, which is the case commonly used for the subject
• amorem is in the accusative singular, which is commonly used for the direct object

So puer is the boy, the one doing the action, and amorem is love, the thing being felt.

The verb sentit also helps: it is third person singular, so it matches a singular subject like puer.

Because amorem is the accusative singular form of amor.

The dictionary form is amor, meaning love, but when that noun is the direct object of a verb, Latin changes its form. Since love is what the boy feels, it has to be in the accusative case:

• nominative: amor
• accusative: amorem

So sentit amorem means feels love.

Because matris is the genitive singular form of mater, meaning of the mother or the mother’s.

Here it tells us whose love is meant:

• mater = mother
• matris = of the mother

So amorem matris means the love of the mother or the mother’s love.

It goes with amorem.

The phrase amorem matris forms a unit:

• amorem = love
• matris = of the mother

Together they mean the mother’s love or love for the mother, depending on context. In this sentence, because the meaning has already been given to the learner, you would follow that meaning, but grammatically matris is attached to amorem, not to puer.

It does not mean the mother’s boy, because for that idea you would expect matris puer as a noun phrase, and the structure here is centered on amorem as the object of sentit.

The verb ending tells you.

sentit is from sentire, and the ending -it here marks third person singular in the present tense:

• sentio = I feel
• sentis = you feel
• sentit = he, she, it feels

Since puer is singular and refers to the boy, sentit means he feels.

Because Latin does not normally use articles like English does.

English often needs words such as:

• the
• a
• an

Latin usually leaves that idea unstated, and the context supplies it.

So puer can mean:

• the boy
• a boy

And amorem matris can mean:

• the mother’s love
• a mother’s love
• love of the mother

The exact English wording depends on context.

It is important for style and emphasis, but less important for basic grammar than in English.

Because Latin marks nouns by case endings, the sentence could be rearranged in several ways without changing the core meaning, for example:

• Puer amorem matris sentit
• Amorem matris puer sentit
• Matris amorem puer sentit

The endings still show:

• puer = subject
• amorem = direct object
• matris = genitive

That said, word order can affect what is emphasized. The original order is a perfectly natural Latin arrangement.

Because puer is already the correct nominative singular form of this noun.

Some second-declension masculine nouns end in -us, such as servus, but not all of them do. Puer is one of the nouns that keeps -er in the nominative singular.

So the basic form is:

• puer = boy

This is simply the way that noun is declined.

Here is the breakdown:

• puer: nominative singular
  used for the subject

• amorem: accusative singular
  used for the direct object

• matris: genitive singular
  used to mean of the mother or the mother’s

This is a very common Latin pattern:

• subject in the nominative
• object in the accusative
• possession or relationship in the genitive

Not by itself.

matris is specifically genitive singular, so its basic meaning is of the mother or the mother’s.

If Latin wanted to say for the mother, you would usually expect a different construction, often with:

• the dative case, or
• a preposition, depending on the exact meaning

So in this sentence, matris should be understood as a genitive modifying amorem.

In a common classical pronunciation, it would be roughly:

PU-wehr a-MO-rem MA-tris SEN-tit

A few helpful points:

• puer has two vowel sounds: pu-er
• c is always hard in classical Latin, though there is no c here
• v in classical Latin sounds like w, though there is no v here either
• stress usually falls on A in amorem, MA in matris, and SEN in sentit

So you can think of it as three clear word groups: puer | amorem matris | sentit