Miles stans ante portam viatores interrogat.

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

Here, miles means soldier. Even though the form ends in -es, it is still singular. That can surprise English speakers, because it looks a bit like an English plural. In Latin, miles is a third-declension noun, and its nominative singular just happens to have this form.

So miles = the soldier.

Stans is a present participle meaning standing. It agrees with miles in case, number, and gender, so it also describes the soldier.

So:

• miles = soldier
• stans = standing

Together they mean the soldier standing...

A good natural English translation is the soldier, standing... or simply the soldier standing...

Stans is the present active participle of stare, meaning to stand.

A present participle in Latin often works like English -ing forms:

• currens = running
• videns = seeing
• stans = standing

In this sentence, it acts like an adjective modifying miles: the standing soldier, or more naturally, the soldier standing.

Because ante takes the accusative case.

So:

• porta = gate nominative/ablative singular
• portam = gate accusative singular

Since ante is followed by the accusative, Latin uses ante portam = before/in front of the gate.

This is just something you learn with the preposition: ante + accusative.

Here it means in front of or before in a spatial sense.

Because the sentence talks about a soldier standing somewhere, ante portam is understood as location: in front of the gate.

Latin ante can also refer to time in other contexts, but here it is clearly about place.

Because viatores is the direct object of interrogat.

The verb interrogat means questions or asks. The person being questioned is the direct object, so Latin puts that noun in the accusative case.

So:

• viatores = travelers accusative plural
• interrogat viatores = questions the travelers

The ending -es here is the accusative plural ending for this third-declension noun.

So:

• viator = traveler singular
• viatores = travelers plural

That tells us the soldier is questioning more than one traveler.

Because its subject, miles, is singular.

Interrogat is third person singular present active:

• interrogo = I question
• interrogas = you question
• interrogat = he/she/it questions

Since there is one soldier, the singular verb form is used: the soldier questions.

Latin has no definite article and no indefinite article.

So Latin does not normally use separate words for:

• the
• a
• an

That means miles can mean:

• the soldier
• a soldier

The correct choice in English depends on context. The same is true for portam and viatores.

Yes. Latin word order is more flexible than English because the endings show each word’s role.

So these would keep essentially the same basic meaning:

• Miles stans ante portam viatores interrogat.
• Viatores miles stans ante portam interrogat.
• Ante portam miles stans viatores interrogat.

The endings tell you that:

• miles is the subject
• viatores is the object

This sentence’s word order is fairly straightforward, but Latin often changes word order for emphasis or style.

Yes. Stans ante portam forms a participial phrase describing the soldier.

It tells us which soldier or what the soldier is doing while questioning the travelers.

So the structure is roughly:

• Miles = subject
• stans ante portam = descriptive phrase modifying the subject
• viatores interrogat = main action

In natural English: The soldier, standing in front of the gate, questions the travelers.

Latin often uses a participle where English might use a relative clause or another finite verb.

So instead of something like:

• The soldier, who is standing before the gate, questions the travelers

Latin can simply say:

• Miles stans ante portam viatores interrogat

This is a very common and compact Latin way to add descriptive information.

The core pattern is:

subject + object + verb

More exactly:

• Miles = subject
• stans ante portam = phrase describing the subject
• viatores = direct object
• interrogat = verb

So if you strip away the descriptive phrase, the core sentence is:

Miles viatores interrogat = The soldier questions the travelers.