Poeta de anima hominis scribit.

Because poeta is a first-declension noun, and many first-declension nouns end in -a in the nominative singular.

Even though first-declension nouns are usually feminine, a small group referring to traditionally male roles can still be masculine, such as:

• poeta = poet
• agricola = farmer
• nauta = sailor

So the -a ending does not always mean the noun is feminine.

Poeta is nominative singular.

In Latin, the subject of a sentence is usually put in the nominative case. Since scribit means writes or is writing, poeta is the one doing that action, so it is the subject.

Because de is a preposition, and in this sentence it means about or concerning.

The preposition de takes the ablative case, so anima here is ablative singular.

So:

• de = about, concerning
• anima = soul, in the ablative after de

Together, de anima means about the soul.

Hominis is genitive singular of homo, hominis, meaning man, person, or human being.

The genitive case often shows possession or close relationship. Here it tells us whose soul is being discussed:

• anima hominis = the soul of a man / person / human being

So hominis depends on anima, not directly on scribit.

Latin usually expresses of X by putting X in the genitive case.

So if you want to say the soul of a human being, the main noun is anima and the possessor is put in the genitive:

• anima = soul
• hominis = of a human being

That gives anima hominis.

Using homo by itself would be nominative, not genitive, so it would not mean of a human being.

Scribit is present tense, third person singular, from scribere.

That means:

• he writes
• she writes
• it writes

In this sentence, since the subject is poeta, it means the poet writes or the poet is writing.

Latin present tense can often be translated either as simple present or progressive present in English, depending on context.

Classical Latin has no articles like English the or a/an.

So poeta can mean:

• a poet
• the poet

And anima can mean:

• a soul
• the soul

You decide which English translation fits best from the context.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because the endings show each word’s job in the sentence.

Placing the verb at the end is very common in Latin, especially in simple prose:

• Poeta de anima hominis scribit.

But other orders are also possible, such as:

• De anima hominis poeta scribit.
• Scribit poeta de anima hominis.

These can all mean essentially the same thing, though the emphasis may shift slightly.

No. De has several meanings depending on context, including:

• about / concerning
• from / down from
• sometimes about in the sense of regarding

In this sentence, because the topic is something the poet is writing on, de is best understood as about.

Because the structure strongly suggests anima hominis as a noun phrase:

• de anima hominis = about the soul of a human being

The genitive hominis most naturally modifies the nearby noun anima. Also, semantically, soul of a human being makes very good sense.

If hominis were meant to go with poeta, the sentence would usually need clearer wording to show that.

It can mean either, depending on context.

The noun homo, hominis often means:

• human being
• person
• sometimes man in a general sense

So anima hominis could be understood as:

• the soul of a man
• the soul of a person
• the human soul

The best English wording depends on the context in which the sentence appears.

You would usually look them up like this:

• poeta, poetae = poet
• de = about, concerning; from, down from
• anima, animae = soul
• homo, hominis = human being, person, man
• scribo, scribere, scripsi, scriptum = write

This is useful because Latin words often appear in sentences in forms different from the main dictionary form.