Monetarius officinatorem monetae audit.

You know it from the case endings.

• Monetarius is nominative singular, so it is the subject.
• officinatorem is accusative singular, so it is the direct object.
• audit means he/she hears.

So monetarius is the one hearing, and officinatorem monetae is what he hears.

Because it is in the accusative singular, the case used for a direct object.

The verb audit takes a direct object: someone hears someone or something.
So the person being heard must be in the accusative:

• nominative: officinator = the workshop manager/supervisor
• accusative: officinatorem = the workshop manager/supervisor as object

That -em ending is a very common sign of the accusative singular in many third-declension masculine nouns.

Here monetae is most naturally genitive singular, meaning of the mint.

So:

• officinatorem = the supervisor/manager
• monetae = of the mint

Together, officinatorem monetae means the supervisor of the mint.

This is a very common Latin pattern: a noun followed by a genitive to show possession or association.

Yes, monetae is a form that can have more than one grammatical value:

• genitive singular = of the mint
• dative singular = to/for the mint
• nominative plural = mints
• vocative plural
• dative/ablative plural would be monetis, so not here

But in this sentence, genitive singular makes the best sense, because it fits naturally with officinatorem: the supervisor of the mint.

Because Latin often puts the verb at the end of the sentence, especially in simple statements.

So this word order is very normal:

• subject: Monetarius
• object: officinatorem monetae
• verb: audit

But Latin word order is more flexible than English because the endings show the grammar. So other orders could still mean the same basic thing, as long as the forms stay the same.

Yes, to a large extent.

Because Latin uses case endings, these could still mean basically the same thing:

• Monetarius officinatorem monetae audit
• Officinatorem monetae monetarius audit
• Audit monetarius officinatorem monetae

The core meaning stays the same because:

• monetarius is still nominative
• officinatorem is still accusative

However, different word orders can change emphasis or style.

Because Latin has no definite article and no indefinite article.

So Latin does not normally have separate words for:

• the
• a
• an

That means monetarius could mean:

• the moneyer
• a moneyer

and officinatorem monetae could mean:

• the supervisor of the mint
• a supervisor of the mint

You decide from context which English translation is best.

The ending -t tells you it is third person singular in the present active indicative.

So:

• audio = I hear
• audis = you hear
• audit = he/she/it hears
• audiunt = they hear

Since monetarius is singular, audit matches it perfectly.

Because Latin verbs usually already include the subject information in their endings.

The ending of audit already tells you third person singular: he/she/it hears.

So Latin often leaves subject pronouns unstated unless they are needed for emphasis or contrast.

The dictionary form is officinator.

More fully, a dictionary might give it as:

• officinator, officinatoris (masculine)

That tells you it is a third-declension noun.
From that, you can understand:

• nominative singular: officinator
• accusative singular: officinatorem

So when you see officinatorem, you should learn to work back to the dictionary form officinator.

Here it is being used as a noun.

The form monetarius can be an adjective in some contexts, meaning something like connected with money or the mint, but in this sentence it stands by itself and functions as a noun: the moneyer or mint worker/official.

So you should read it as the subject noun here.

Because monetae is not an adjective describing officinatorem. It is a genitive noun depending on it.

Agreement happens with adjectives, which match a noun in:

• gender
• number
• case

But monetae is a noun in the genitive, meaning of the mint. It does not have to match officinatorem. Instead, it shows a relationship to it.

So this is not adjective agreement; it is a noun + genitive construction.

In this sentence:

• monetarius is a second-declension masculine form
• officinatorem comes from officinator, a third-declension masculine noun
• monetae comes from moneta, a first-declension noun

So the sentence is useful because it shows three different noun patterns in one short example.

Grammatically, a genitive can sometimes be ambiguous, but here it most naturally goes with officinatorem.

That is because officinator monetae makes a very clear unit: supervisor of the mint.

Also, monetarius already has a complete meaning by itself, so monetae is less likely to depend on it in this sentence.

So the most natural parsing is:

• Monetarius = subject
• officinatorem monetae = object phrase

A simple classroom-style pronunciation would be something like:

mo-ne-TA-ri-us of-fi-ki-na-TO-rem mo-NE-tay AU-dit

A few helpful points:

• c in traditional/classical pronunciation is always hard, like k
• ae is often pronounced like eye in classical pronunciation, though many classrooms use something closer to ay
• au sounds like ow in cow
• stress usually falls according to Latin stress rules; in officinatorem, the stress falls on to

If your class uses an ecclesiastical pronunciation, some sounds may be different.