Ventus pittacium rapit.

Because ventus is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject of a sentence.

Its ending -us is a very common nominative singular ending for a second-declension masculine noun.

So in Ventus pittacium rapit, ventus is the wind as the doer of the action.

Because it is the thing being acted on by the verb rapit.

The verb rapit means seizes / snatches / carries off, so it needs something that is being seized or carried off. That thing is pittacium.

Also, pittacium is a neuter second-declension noun, and for neuter nouns the nominative singular and accusative singular look the same: -um. So the form itself could be either nominative or accusative, but here the sentence structure and meaning show that it is the accusative, the direct object.

The ending -it shows:

• third person
• singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

So rapit means he/she/it seizes or is seizing.

Since ventus is singular, the verb is singular too.

It comes from rapere, meaning to seize, snatch, or carry off.

More fully, the principal parts are:

• rapio
• rapere
• rapui
• raptum

This is a third-conjugation verb, specifically an -io verb.

Latin usually does not use articles like English the and a/an.

So:

• ventus can mean wind, a wind, or the wind
• pittacium can mean a ribbon/tag/etc. or the ribbon/tag/etc.

The exact choice in English depends on context.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because the endings show how words function.

This sentence uses a very normal Latin pattern:

• Ventus = subject
• pittacium = object
• rapit = verb

So it is subject–object–verb, with the verb at the end, which is very common in Latin.

You could rearrange the words, for example:

• Pittacium ventus rapit
• Rapit ventus pittacium

The basic meaning would stay the same, though the emphasis might change.

Both are second-declension nouns, but they differ in gender:

• ventus = masculine, second declension
• pittacium = neuter, second declension

That is why their singular nominative forms look different:

• masculine often has -us
• neuter often has -um

Yes, mainly for its forms.

Because pittacium is neuter:

• nominative singular = pittacium
• accusative singular = pittacium

That is a standard rule in Latin: neuter nominative and accusative are always the same.

So its gender matters grammatically, even though the English translation may not show that clearly.

Yes. A present-tense Latin verb can often be translated in several natural English ways, depending on context.

So rapit could be rendered as:

• snatches
• seizes
• carries off
• sometimes even is snatching or is carrying off

Latin present tense is often broader than a single English present-tense form.

A simple classroom-style pronunciation would be roughly:

WEN-toos pit-TAH-kee-um RAH-pit

A few helpful points:

• v is often pronounced like w in restored classical pronunciation
• c is always hard, like k
• ti before a vowel here is pronounced clearly as tee, not like English sh

So:

• ventus ≈ WEN-toos
• pittacium ≈ pit-TAH-kee-um
• rapit ≈ RAH-pit

Yes, Latin often leaves out the subject when it is understood from the verb ending.

Since rapit already means he/she/it seizes, a subject pronoun is not necessary.

However, if the speaker wants to name the subject clearly, as in this sentence, Latin includes it:

• Ventus pittacium rapit = The wind seizes the pittacium

So the noun ventus is not required by the grammar of the verb, but it is needed if you want to specify who or what is doing the action.