Post certamen amici pignus recipiunt et rident.

Post is a preposition that takes the accusative case when it means after.

So in post certamen, certamen is accusative singular.

A useful thing to notice is that certamen is a neuter third-declension noun, and for many neuter nouns the nominative and accusative singular look the same. So even though the form is certamen, here it is functioning as an accusative because post requires that case.

Here amici is nominative plural, meaning friends.

It is the subject of both verbs:

• recipiunt
• rident

So the sentence structure is basically:

Post certamen = after the contest
amici = the friends
pignus recipiunt = recover / receive back the pledge
et rident = and laugh

A learner might notice that amici could also be genitive singular in some contexts, meaning of the friend, but that does not fit here. In this sentence it is clearly nominative plural because it is the subject of plural verbs.

Because pignus is a third-declension neuter noun, not a second-declension noun.

Its nominative singular is pignus, and its accusative singular is also pignus. So even though it is the direct object of recipiunt, the form does not change.

This is normal for neuter nouns:

• nominative singular = accusative singular
• nominative plural = accusative plural

So pignus is the accusative singular direct object of recipiunt.

Recipiunt is:

• third person plural
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from recipio, recipere, meaning receive back, recover, take back, or regain, depending on context.

The -iunt ending is typical of some third-conjugation -io verbs in the present tense.

So amici recipiunt means the friends receive back / recover.

Rident is:

• third person plural
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from rideo, ridere, meaning laugh.

So rident means they laugh.

Because amici is already the subject, Latin does not need to repeat they. The subject is understood from both the noun amici and the verb ending -nt.

Latin normally has no articles.

So:

• amici can mean friends or the friends
• pignus can mean a pledge or the pledge
• certamen can mean a contest or the contest

English usually requires an article, but Latin does not. The context tells you whether something is definite or indefinite.

Because Latin does not need to repeat the subject if it stays the same.

In amici pignus recipiunt et rident, the subject amici applies to both verbs:

• recipiunt
• rident

English also often does this:

• The friends recover the pledge and laugh.

We do not usually repeat the friends before laugh unless we want special emphasis.

Et means and, and here it connects the two verbs:

• recipiunt
• rident

So the sentence says that the friends do two actions:

1. they recover the pledge
2. they laugh

It is a very common Latin way to join actions in a simple sentence.

The basic meaning does not depend mainly on word order, because Latin uses case endings and verb endings to show grammatical relationships.

So in this sentence:

• amici is the subject because it is nominative plural
• pignus is the object because it is accusative singular
• certamen is accusative after post

Latin word order is more flexible than English. The sentence could be rearranged in other ways and still mean roughly the same thing, though the emphasis might change.

For example, Post certamen is placed first to set the scene: after the contest.

Yes. Post can be:

• a preposition meaning after when followed by the accusative
• sometimes an adverb meaning afterwards or later

In this sentence it is clearly a preposition, because it is followed by certamen:

• post certamen = after the contest

Pignus is a neuter third-declension noun.

Its meanings can include things like:

• pledge
• security
• token
• hostage
• sometimes something given as a guarantee

Exactly which English word is best depends on context. In a simple learner sentence, it often means something like pledge or token.

So the learner should remember both the grammar and the range of meanings:

• grammar: neuter, third declension
• form here: accusative singular
• role here: direct object of recipiunt

Both verbs have present-tense forms:

• recipiunt = they receive back / recover
• rident = they laugh

Latin past tense forms would look different, for example:

• receperunt = they recovered / received back
• riserunt = they laughed

So this sentence is grammatically in the present.

In some literary contexts, Latin can use the present as a historical present to describe past events vividly, but in a basic sentence like this, a learner should first understand it simply as present tense.