Miles praedam portat.

Because miles is singular nominative.

In this sentence, miles is the subject, so it appears in the nominative case. Its singular form happens to be miles. The plural would be militēs.

So:

• miles = soldier
• militēs = soldiers

Even though miles ends in -es, it is still singular. That can feel strange to an English speaker, but it is normal for some third-declension Latin nouns.

The ending -am shows that praedam is in the accusative singular.

In Latin, the direct object of a verb usually goes in the accusative case. Since praedam is the thing being carried, it must be accusative.

Its basic dictionary form is praeda, and the forms here are:

• praeda = nominative singular
• praedam = accusative singular

So the -am ending tells you that this word is the object of portat.

You know because of the case endings and the verb form.

• miles is nominative singular, which usually marks the subject
• praedam is accusative singular, which usually marks the direct object
• portat is third person singular, so it goes with a singular subject such as miles

So Latin is not relying mainly on word order here. It is relying on grammar endings.

Portat is:

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

It comes from the verb portāre, meaning to carry.

A beginner might find it useful to compare:

• portō = I carry
• portās = you carry
• portat = he/she/it carries

So portat matches the singular subject miles.

Because Latin usually does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So miles can mean:

• a soldier
• the soldier

And praedam can mean:

• plunder
• the plunder
• some booty

The exact choice in English depends on the context. Latin often leaves that unstated.

It matters less than it does in English.

Because Latin uses case endings, the roles of the words are already clear:

• miles = subject
• praedam = object

So Latin could rearrange the words more freely, for example:

• Miles praedam portat
• Praedam miles portat
• Portat miles praedam

All of these can mean the same basic thing, though the emphasis may change. The version you have is a very normal, straightforward sentence.

Miles is a third-declension noun, while praeda is a first-declension noun.

That is why their endings look different.

For example:

• praeda follows a more familiar first-declension pattern:
  • nominative singular: praeda
  • accusative singular: praedam
• miles belongs to the third declension:
  • nominative singular: miles
  • accusative singular: militem

Third-declension nominative forms are often less predictable, so miles has to be learned as part of its full dictionary entry.

Not all masculine Latin nouns end in -us.

Many beginners first meet nouns like servus or dominus, which are second declension masculine nouns. But miles is third declension, and third-declension nouns have a much wider variety of endings.

So:

• servus = masculine, second declension
• miles = masculine, third declension

Its gender is masculine because that is how the noun is classified, not because of a simple ending rule.

Yes. Praeda often means plunder, booty, or spoils, and it can be somewhat collective in sense.

So even though praedam is grammatically singular, it may refer to:

• a piece of loot
• booty in general
• spoils taken in war

That is common in Latin and in English too. A singular noun can sometimes refer to something mass-like or collective.

You would usually look them up like this:

• miles, militis = soldier
• praeda, praedae = plunder, booty
• portō, portāre, portāvī, portātum = carry

For nouns, Latin dictionaries usually give:

• the nominative singular
• the genitive singular

That helps you identify the declension and stem.

For verbs, dictionaries usually give the main principal parts, which help you recognize different forms.

A simple parsing would look like this:

• Miles

  • noun
  • nominative singular
  • masculine
  • subject

• praedam

  • noun
  • accusative singular
  • feminine
  • direct object

• portat

  • verb
  • present active indicative
  • third person singular

So the structure is:

subject + object + verb

That is a very common and beginner-friendly way to understand the sentence.