Suppostor non prius nummum ponet quam incudem paraverit.

It is a very common Latin pattern meaning not sooner ... than, which English usually expresses as not until.

So the basic logic is:

• non prius X quam Y = X will not happen before Y has happened
• idiomatic English: X will not happen until Y has happened

In this sentence, the idea is that the action of ponet does not happen before the action of paraverit.

Yes, basically. Latin learners often first meet quam as than in comparisons, and that is still the background here.

Because prius means earlier/sooner, the phrase is literally comparative:

• non prius ... quam = not earlier/sooner ... than

But in natural English, this usually comes out as not until or not before.

So quam is still connected with comparison, even though the whole expression works like a temporal clause.

Ponet is future indicative, 3rd person singular, from pono, ponere.

So it means he will place / he will put.

That tells you the main action of the sentence is in the future.

This is one of the most important grammar points in the sentence.

Paraverit can have the same form as either:

• future perfect indicative, or
• perfect subjunctive

Here, because the main verb is future (ponet) and the sense is he will not do X until he has done Y, the most natural reading is future perfect indicative:

• paraverit = he will have prepared

So the time relationship is:

• first: he will have prepared the anvil
• then: he will place the coin

English often uses exactly the same logic: He will not place the coin until he has prepared the anvil.

Because both are direct objects.

• nummum is the object of ponet
• incudem is the object of paraverit

So:

• nummum ponet = he will place the coin
• incudem paraverit = he will have prepared the anvil

A native English speaker may expect word order to show this, but in Latin the endings show it:

• nummus → nummum = accusative singular
• incus → incudem = accusative singular

Because incus is the dictionary form, the nominative singular. In the sentence, the word is a direct object, so it must be in the accusative singular.

This noun is third declension:

• nominative: incus
• genitive: incudis
• accusative: incudem

So incudem is exactly the form you would expect for the anvil as the object of the verb.

Yes, most naturally.

Latin very often leaves out subject pronouns when the verb ending already makes the person clear. Since paraverit is 3rd person singular, and suppostor is the subject already named in the sentence, the understood subject is the same:

• suppostor ... ponet
• suppostor ... paraverit

In English we would often repeat he, but Latin usually does not need to.

Grammatically, suppostor is a nominative singular noun and the subject of the sentence.

The ending -tor is a common agent-noun ending in Latin, often meaning the person who does something, as in words like:

• orator
• ductor

So even if the word is technical or rare in this context, the grammar is straightforward: suppostor is the doer of both actions.

Here prius is an adverb, not an adjective.

It means earlier or sooner, and it modifies the verb ponet. With non, it gives the sense:

• non prius = not sooner / not before

So the sentence is structured around the idea of delay: the main action will not happen earlier than the subordinate action.

Literally, yes: pono, ponere basically means to put, place, or set.

In a technical context, English may use a more specialized translation depending on what is being described, but grammatically it is still the ordinary Latin verb ponere with a direct object.

So a learner should first understand the grammar as:

• nummum ponet = he will place the coin

Any more specialized English wording comes from context, not from a different grammatical construction.

Because Latin relies much more on endings than on word order.

In English, we usually need a fixed order like:

• subject + verb + object

In Latin, the endings already show who is doing what, so the writer has more freedom. In this sentence:

• suppostor comes first to establish the subject
• non prius ... quam sets up the time relationship
• each verb comes near the end of its own clause, which is very common Latin style

So the word order may feel unusual to an English speaker, but it is perfectly normal Latin.