Hortulana pueris ostendit quomodo semina serere et terram lente fodere debeant.

Hortulana is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of a Latin sentence.

So here:

• hortulana = the woman gardener / the female gardener
• ostendit = shows

That gives us the main idea: The gardener shows ...

The ending -a is a strong clue that this is a first-declension noun in the nominative singular.

Pueris is dative plural, and here it means to the boys or to the children.

The verb ostendere often takes:

• a direct object = the thing shown
• a dative = the person to whom something is shown

So:

• hortulana pueris ostendit = the gardener shows the boys

Even though English often says shows the boys without to, Latin still uses the dative here.

Quomodo means how.

It introduces an indirect question:

• quomodo ... debeant = how they should ...

So the gardener is not just showing an object; she is showing how to do something.

A useful way to understand the structure is:

• ostendit = she shows
• quomodo ... debeant = how they should ...

This is very common in Latin after verbs of knowing, asking, showing, telling, and understanding.

Because it is inside an indirect question introduced by quomodo.

In Latin, indirect questions normally use the subjunctive, even when English does not obviously do anything special.

So:

• direct question: Quomodo semina serimus? = How do we sow the seeds?
• indirect question: Hortulana ostendit quomodo ... debeant = The gardener shows how they should ...

Here debeant is:

• present subjunctive
• third person plural
• from debeo, debere = to owe, ought, should, must

Debeant is third person plural, so it means they should.

The implied subject is the same people referred to by pueris:

• pueris = to the boys
• implied subject of debeant = the boys

So the sense is:

• The gardener shows the boys how they should sow the seeds and dig the soil slowly.

Latin often leaves the subject unstated when it is easy to understand from context and verb ending.

They depend on debeant.

The pattern is:

• debeant serere = they should sow
• debeant fodere = they should dig

So:

• serere = to sow
• fodere = to dig

These are present active infinitives. After a verb like debeo, Latin often uses an infinitive to express what someone ought to do.

So the structure is basically:

• how they should sow the seeds
• and dig the ground slowly

Because they are the direct objects of the infinitives:

• semina serere = to sow the seeds
• terram fodere = to dig the ground/soil

More specifically:

• semina is the accusative plural of semen = seed
• terram is the accusative singular of terra = earth, ground, soil

They answer the question what?

• sow what? → semina
• dig what? → terram

Grammatically, ostendit can mean either:

• he/she shows (present), or
• he/she showed (perfect)

This form is ambiguous in Latin.

However, in this sentence, shows is the more natural reading, especially because:

• the sentence feels like a general description
• debeant is in the present subjunctive, which fits well with a present main verb

So most learners should take it here as:

• The gardener shows the boys ...

Lente is an adverb meaning slowly or sometimes gently.

It modifies fodere:

• terram lente fodere = to dig the soil slowly/gently

So it tells us how the digging is done.

Because it is an adverb, it does not change form.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

Placing debeant at the end is very natural Latin style. It lets the sentence build up toward the main verb of the subordinate clause:

• quomodo semina serere et terram lente fodere debeant

English usually wants the finite verb earlier, but Latin often saves it for the end.

So this word order is not strange in Latin; it is actually quite normal.

It is literally closer to:

• how they should sow the seeds and dig the soil slowly

But in natural English, after shows, we often say:

• shows the children how to sow the seeds and dig the soil slowly

So both ideas are helpful:

• literal grammar: how they should ...
• natural English meaning: how to ...

This is a common difference between Latin structure and idiomatic English.

Yes. Hortulana is a feminine noun meaning female gardener.

It matters in meaning, because Latin distinguishes:

• hortulanus = male gardener
• hortulana = female gardener

But for the syntax of this sentence, the important point is simply that hortulana is nominative singular and matches the singular verb ostendit.

So the sentence specifically has a woman gardener as the subject.

Not in the same way.

With quomodo, Latin clearly says:

• how they should sow and dig

Without it, the sentence would need a different construction, and the meaning would not be exactly the same.

So quomodo is important because it marks the clause as an explanation of method: the gardener is showing how the task should be done, not merely stating that it should be done.