Poeta egregius carmen legit.

Because poeta is a first-declension masculine noun. In Latin, nouns in -a are often feminine, but not always. Some nouns referring to male people, especially jobs or roles borrowed from Greek, are masculine even though they use first-declension endings.

So here:

• poeta = poet
• case: nominative singular
• job in the sentence: subject

It is nominative singular.

That tells you poeta is the subject of the sentence: the one doing the action. In this sentence, the poet is the one who legit.

Because egregius is an adjective modifying poeta, and Latin adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Since poeta is masculine nominative singular, the adjective must also be masculine nominative singular:

• poeta egregius = the distinguished/excellent poet

Even though poeta is first declension and egregius is a second/first-and-second-declension adjective, they can still go together perfectly well. Agreement is about gender, number, and case, not about being in the same declension.

Yes, it could come before it.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order. Both of these are possible:

• poeta egregius
• egregius poeta

Both mean essentially the same thing: the distinguished poet.

The choice often depends on style, emphasis, or rhythm rather than strict grammar. So seeing the adjective after the noun is completely normal in Latin.

Carmen is accusative singular here, so it is the direct object: the thing being read.

It looks the same as a nominative form because carmen is a third-declension neuter noun, and neuter nouns follow an important rule:

• nominative and accusative are always the same

So:

• nominative singular: carmen
• accusative singular: carmen

Its dictionary form is usually given as carmen, carminis.

We know from the forms.

• poeta is nominative singular, so it is the subject.
• carmen is accusative singular, so it is the direct object.

Also, egregius agrees with poeta, which confirms that poeta is the noun phrase functioning as the subject.

So the structure is:

• poeta egregius = subject
• carmen = direct object
• legit = verb

Legit is third person singular active indicative from legere.

That means:

• third person = he/she/it
• singular = one person
• active = the subject performs the action
• indicative = a simple statement

So legit means he/she reads or reads.

Because the subject is poeta, the sense is the poet reads.

This is a very good question, because in ordinary spelling legit can be ambiguous.

It can represent either:

• legit = reads (present tense)
• lēgit = read / has read (perfect tense)

If macrons are written, the perfect form is distinguished by the long ē: lēgit.

Without macrons, you usually tell from context. If the meaning shown to you is present, then you should understand it here as reads.

Because Latin has no articles.

Latin does not have separate words corresponding exactly to English the or a/an. So:

• poeta can mean poet, a poet, or the poet
• carmen can mean song/poem, a song/poem, or the song/poem

Which one sounds best in English depends on the context.

In a sense, yes: the verb ending already includes that idea.

The ending -t in legit tells you the verb is third person singular, so Latin does not need a separate subject pronoun like he or she unless it wants extra emphasis.

So Latin can simply say:

• legit = he/she reads

When a noun subject is present, as in this sentence, that noun gives the identity of the doer:

• poeta legit = the poet reads

Yes. Latin allows several word orders because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

For example, these could all mean basically the same thing:

• Poeta egregius carmen legit.
• Carmen poeta egregius legit.
• Legit poeta egregius carmen.
• Egregius poeta carmen legit.

The differences are mainly about emphasis or style, not basic meaning.

English depends heavily on word order. Latin depends much more on inflected endings.

You would usually look them up under their dictionary forms:

• poēta, -ae = poet
• ēgregius, -a, -um = distinguished, excellent
• carmen, carminis = song, poem
• legō, legere, lēgī, lēctum = read

This is especially important for forms like legit, because you normally do not look up the exact form legit first; instead, you identify it as coming from legere.

Yes. Carmen is a flexible word.

It can mean:

• song
• poem
• verse
• sometimes even chant or spell, depending on context

So the exact English translation depends on the context provided. In a simple beginner sentence like this, poem or song is usually the intended sense.