Comoedia histrionem et catervam habet.

Because comoedia is in the nominative singular, the case used for the subject of the sentence.

It is a first-declension noun, and first-declension nominative singular nouns often end in -a. Here, comoedia is the thing doing the action of habet, so it appears in the nominative.

They are in a different case. Both histrionem and catervam are direct objects, so they are in the accusative singular.

• histrionem is the accusative singular of histrio
• catervam is the accusative singular of caterva

Latin uses these endings to show each word’s job in the sentence.

Because the verb habet can take more than one direct object when two things are being listed. The word et connects them.

So histrionem et catervam means that both nouns are objects of habet.

Habet is:

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

It comes from habeo, meaning have.

The third person singular form is used because the subject, comoedia, is singular.

We know from the case endings, not just from word order.

• comoedia is nominative, which marks the subject
• histrionem is accusative, which marks the direct object

In Latin, endings are usually more important than position for telling you who is doing the action.

Yes, but not in the same way as in English.

Latin word order is more flexible because case endings already show the grammatical roles. In this sentence, the order is very natural:

• subject first: comoedia
• objects next: histrionem et catervam
• verb last: habet

Putting the verb at the end is especially common in Latin prose.

Yes. Because the endings show the grammatical roles, Latin could rearrange the words without changing the basic meaning. For example, forms like Comoedia catervam et histrionem habet would still mean the same thing.

Different word orders can change emphasis, but the case endings still tell you which noun is the subject and which nouns are objects.

Latin does not have articles like English does.

So a noun like comoedia can mean:

• a comedy
• the comedy

The correct English choice depends on context, not on a separate Latin word.

Et means and. It joins histrionem and catervam into a pair.

That means both nouns are linked together as objects of habet.

Not very much in this particular sentence, because there are no adjectives or pronouns agreeing with them. But the nouns do have grammatical gender:

• comoedia is feminine
• caterva is feminine
• histrio is usually masculine

Gender matters more when you add adjectives, participles, or pronouns, since those must agree with the noun.

Because histrio belongs to the third declension, not the second.

A beginner often learns that accusative singular masculine nouns can end in -um, but that is especially true for many second-declension nouns. Third-declension nouns often form the accusative singular in -em, which is what we see in histrionem.

You would usually look them up like this:

• comoedia, comoediae
• histrio, histrionis
• caterva, catervae
• habeo, habere, habui, habitum

For nouns, the dictionary normally gives the nominative singular and genitive singular, because those help you identify the declension and stem. For verbs, dictionaries usually give the main principal parts.