Ter adversarius iacit.

Ter is an adverb, and it means three times.

That is different from tres, which is the number three.

So:

• tres = three
• ter = three times

A native English speaker often expects a form related to three, but Latin uses a special adverb for frequency here.

Adversarius is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject.

In this sentence, adversarius is the one doing the action of iacit, so it is the subject.

A learner may also notice the -us ending and wonder about it. In a sentence like this, that ending strongly suggests a second-declension masculine nominative singular noun.

Iacit is the 3rd person singular present active indicative of iacere.

That means:

• present: the action is happening now, or is stated as a general fact
• active: the subject performs the action
• indicative: it is a plain statement
• 3rd person singular: he/she/it or a singular noun like adversarius

So iacit means he throws, she throws, or it throws, depending on the subject.

Latin usually does not need a separate subject pronoun when the verb ending already shows the person and number.

The ending -t in iacit tells you the verb is 3rd person singular.

So Latin can simply say iacit instead of adding a word for he.
Here, the noun adversarius is present anyway, so the subject is already clear.

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

Putting ter first can give it a little extra prominence, as if the speaker wants to highlight the frequency: three times.

Other orders are possible, such as:

• Adversarius ter iacit
• Adversarius iacit ter

These can all express basically the same core idea, though the emphasis may shift slightly.

Possibly, yes. A native English speaker may expect an object such as it or the spear.

Latin often leaves out words that are understood from the context. So iacit can stand without an expressed object if the listener already knows what is being thrown.

In natural translation, English may need to supply something like it, but Latin does not always have to say it explicitly.

Yes. Adversarius can be translated in several related ways depending on context, such as:

• opponent
• adversary
• enemy
• sometimes even rival

So even if the general meaning is already given, a learner may want to know that Latin words do not always match just one English word exactly.

In Classical Latin, a helpful rough pronunciation is:

• ter = tehr
• adversarius = ad-wehr-SAH-ree-oos
• iacit = YAH-kit

A few useful points:

• c is always hard, like k
• the i at the start of iacit before another vowel is pronounced like y
• so iacit is not ee-a-sit or jay-sit, but roughly YAH-kit

So the whole sentence is roughly:

tehr ad-wehr-SAH-ree-oos YAH-kit