Haec femina honore digna est.

Because haec must agree with femina in gender, number, and case.

• femina is feminine singular nominative
• So the demonstrative adjective meaning this must also be feminine singular nominative
• That form is haec

The three nominative singular forms are:

• hic = this (masculine)
• haec = this (feminine)
• hoc = this (neuter)

So haec femina means this woman.

Femina is nominative singular because it is the subject of the sentence.

The sentence says that something is true about the woman:

• This woman is worthy of honor.

In Latin, the subject of a sentence is normally in the nominative case, so femina is nominative.

Because digna is an adjective describing femina, and Latin adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe.

Since femina is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

the adjective must also be:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

So we get digna, not dignus or dignum.

Digna est means is worthy.

More literally:

• digna = worthy
• est = is

Together they form a predicate:

• Haec femina honore digna est = This woman is worthy of honor

This is a very common Latin pattern:

• adjective + esse

For example:

• bonus est = he is good
• clara est = she is famous
• digna est = she is worthy

Because the adjective dignus, digna, dignum regularly takes the ablative in Latin.

So:

• dignus honore = worthy of honor
• dignus laude = worthy of praise
• dignus poena = deserving of punishment

This is one of those things that English speakers simply have to learn as part of the adjective’s construction. English uses of after worthy, but Latin uses the ablative.

So honore digna literally means something like:

• worthy by/with respect to honor but in natural English:
• worthy of honor

Honore is the ablative singular of honor or honos, meaning honor.

Its principal forms are usually given as:

• honor, honoris (masculine)

A few key forms are:

• nominative singular: honor
• genitive singular: honoris
• dative singular: honori
• accusative singular: honorem
• ablative singular: honore

Since digna takes the ablative, the sentence uses honore.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because Latin uses endings to show grammatical function.

So all of these can mean essentially the same thing:

• Haec femina honore digna est
• Haec femina est honore digna
• Honore digna est haec femina

That said, putting est at or near the end is very common in Latin prose.

So the final position of est is normal and natural.

Here it is an adjective, because it directly modifies a noun: femina.

• haec femina = this woman

If haec stood by itself, it could function as a pronoun:

• haec digna est = this woman / she is worthy, depending on context

But in your sentence, because femina is present, haec is functioning adjectivally.

Yes. That is a perfectly natural English translation.

Possible translations include:

• This woman is worthy of honor
• This woman is deserving of honor
• This woman deserves honor

The Latin structure is the same in all cases:

• honore digna = worthy/deserving of honor

Yes: Latin often places a noun and its adjective next to each other, especially when they belong closely together in meaning.

Here:

• honore digna = worthy of honor

That makes the phrase easy to recognize as a unit.

Also, Latin often puts the most important descriptive word near the end before est, so digna receives a little emphasis:

• This woman is worthy of honor

In some contexts, yes, but not quite in the same simple way as the personal pronoun she in English.

Haec basically means:

• this woman
• this one
• she here / this person

Its force is demonstrative, not just personal. It points someone out.

So:

• haec femina = this woman
• haec by itself could mean this woman or she, depending on context

But in your sentence, with femina present, the meaning is clearly this woman.

A very literal breakdown would be:

• Haec = this
• femina = woman
• honore = by honor / with honor / in respect to honor
• digna = worthy
• est = is

So a very literal rendering would be:

• This woman is worthy with respect to honor

That sounds awkward in English, so the natural translation is:

• This woman is worthy of honor

This is a good example of how Latin and English often use different case patterns even when the meaning is simple.