Flaturarius electrum liquat.

Because Flaturarius is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject.

In a simple sentence like this:

• Flaturarius = the person doing the action
• electrum = the thing receiving the action
• liquat = melts

So Flaturarius is the one who melts something.

The ending -us often signals a masculine nominative singular noun of the second declension, which is another clue that it is the subject.

Here electrum is accusative singular, because it is the direct object of liquat.

The verb liquat is a transitive verb: it does something to something. The thing being melted goes into the accusative case.

So:

• Flaturarius = subject, nominative
• electrum = direct object, accusative

One thing that can confuse learners is that electrum is a neuter noun, and in neuter nouns the nominative singular and accusative singular often look exactly the same. So the form electrum could be either nominative or accusative depending on its job in the sentence. Here, because Flaturarius is clearly the subject, electrum must be the object.

Liquat is the third person singular present active indicative form of the verb.

That tells you all of this:

• third person = he/she/it
• singular = one subject
• present = happening now, or stated as a general fact
• active = the subject performs the action
• indicative = a normal statement, not a command or a wish

So liquat means he melts, she melts, or it melts, depending on the subject.

In this sentence, since the subject is Flaturarius, the sense is the flaturarius melts electrum.

Because Latin often prefers to put the verb near the end of the sentence.

So this order:

• Flaturarius electrum liquat

is very natural in Latin.

English usually prefers subject-verb-object:

• The flaturarius melts electrum

But Latin very often uses subject-object-verb.

That said, Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical roles. A Latin writer could change the order for emphasis or style.

Yes, often it could.

Because the endings show the grammar, these would still basically mean the same thing:

• Flaturarius electrum liquat
• Electrum flaturarius liquat
• Liquat flaturarius electrum

The basic meaning stays the same because:

• Flaturarius still looks like the subject
• electrum still works as the object
• liquat is still the verb

However, changing the order can change emphasis. For example:

• putting electrum first may emphasize what is being melted
• putting liquat first may emphasize the action

Because Latin has no articles.

English uses articles constantly:

• the worker
• a worker
• the metal

Latin usually leaves that idea to context.

So Flaturarius could mean:

• the flaturarius
• a flaturarius

And electrum could mean:

• the electrum
• electrum
• sometimes an electrum substance, depending on context

When translating into English, you usually add the or a in whatever way sounds natural.

Flaturarius appears to be a masculine second-declension noun in the nominative singular.

Its ending -us is the big clue. Many masculine second-declension nouns have forms like:

• nominative singular: -us
• accusative singular: -um
• genitive singular: -i

So a learner might expect forms such as:

• Flaturarius = subject form
• Flaturarium = object form
• Flaturarii = of the flaturarius

The exact meaning of the word is vocabulary, but grammatically its shape is very familiar.

Because electrum is a neuter second-declension noun.

For many neuter second-declension nouns:

• nominative singular = -um
• accusative singular = -um
• nominative plural = -a
• accusative plural = -a

So electrum has the typical neuter singular ending.

This is why electrum can look a little ambiguous at first: the nominative and accusative singular are identical in neuter nouns. You decide which it is from the sentence structure and the verb.

In a restored Classical pronunciation, a rough guide would be:

• Flaturarius = fla-too-ra-ree-us
• electrum = eh-LEK-trum
• liquat = LEE-kwat or LI-kwat, depending on how vowel length is being taught

A few useful pronunciation points:

• c is always hard in Classical Latin, though there is no c here
• qu is pronounced like kw
• r is usually trilled or tapped
• u is pronounced like oo, not like English you

A natural spoken rhythm would be something like:

fla-too-RA-ri-us e-LEK-trum LI-kwat

Because the form electrum is singular.

For a neuter second-declension noun:

• singular nominative/accusative = -um
• plural nominative/accusative = -a

So:

• electrum = singular
• electra = plural

Also, the verb is liquat, which is singular. If the subject were plural, you would expect a plural verb form instead.

Yes.

In Latin, the finite verb agrees with its subject in person and number.

Here:

• Flaturarius = singular subject
• liquat = third person singular verb

That is exactly the agreement you want.

If the subject were plural, the verb would also need to be plural. So agreement is another way to confirm that Flaturarius is the subject.