Discipula scribit se apud aviam didicisse quomodo ramum fractum tollere et radices servare debeat.

It has three layers:

1. Main clause: Discipula scribit = The student/girl writes
2. Indirect statement: se apud aviam didicisse = that she learned at her grandmother’s place / with her grandmother
3. Indirect question inside that statement: quomodo ... debeat = how she should/ought to ...

Inside the indirect question, tollere and servare are the actions she learned to do.

So the sentence is not just one simple clause; it is a statement containing another statement, which contains a question.

Se is the reflexive pronoun, meaning herself. It refers back to the subject of the main verb, which is discipula.

So:

• Discipula scribit = the student writes
• se didicisse = that she herself learned

Latin uses se when the subject of the subordinate idea is the same person as the subject of the main clause.

Because Latin usually expresses an indirect statement with accusative + infinitive.

After a verb like scribit (writes), instead of saying that she learned with a finite verb, Latin says:

• se didicisse = literally her to have learned

In this construction:

• se is the subject of the infinitive
• but the subject of an infinitive is put in the accusative

So se is accusative because it is the subject of didicisse in an indirect statement.

Because se refers back to the main subject, discipula.

• se = herself, referring back to the subject
• eam = her, meaning some other female person

So this sentence means the student writes that she herself learned. If Latin used eam, it would suggest that the student writes that another woman or girl learned.

Because after scribit, Latin is using an indirect statement, and indirect statements take an infinitive, not a normal finite verb.

• didicit = she learned
• didicisse = to have learned

So:

• scribit se didicisse = she writes that she learned

Also, didicisse is a perfect active infinitive, which shows that the learning happened before the writing.

It is the perfect active infinitive of disco.

That means it expresses an action completed earlier than the main verb:

• scribit = she writes
• didicisse = to have learned

So the sense is: she writes that she had learned / that she learned earlier.

In smoother English, we usually just say she writes that she learned.

Apud is a preposition that takes the accusative case. Its basic meaning is at, with, in the presence of, or at the house/place of.

So:

• apud aviam = with her grandmother or at her grandmother’s place

Aviam is accusative because apud always governs the accusative.

This phrase tells you the setting or association of the learning. It does not by itself necessarily mean from her grandmother, though that may be implied by context.

Latin often uses an indirect question for this idea.

English often says:

• she learned how to remove a broken branch and save the roots

Latin says:

• didicisse quomodo ... debeat
• literally, something like to have learned how she should ...

So quomodo introduces the idea of how, and debeat gives the sense of what one should do.

This is a very normal Latin way to express knowing/learning how to do something.

Because quomodo introduces an indirect question, and indirect questions in Latin normally take the subjunctive.

So:

• direct question: Quomodo ... debet? = How should she ... ?
• indirect question: ... quomodo ... debeat = ... how she should ...

That is why you see debeat, not debet.

A learner often expects a past form because didicisse is past in sense. But Latin commonly uses debeat here because the sentence is being reported from the standpoint of scribit, which is present.

So the sequence is treated as primary:

• scribit = present
• therefore debeat = present subjunctive is natural

Also, the idea is not just one past action; it is the method or procedure she learned, something still valid as a general instruction.

If the main reporting verb were past, you would more naturally expect something like deberet.

The subject is understood, not stated again. It is the same person as se, namely the student/girl.

So Latin does not need to repeat:

• she should remove
• she should preserve

The sense is:

• quomodo [se] ramum fractum tollere et radices servare debeat

But Latin normally leaves that repeated subject unstated because it is already clear.

They are infinitives dependent on debeat.

So the idea is:

• debeat tollere = should remove / should lift away
• debeat servare = should preserve / should save

Latin can use debeo with infinitives this way, just as English uses should/ought to with another verb.

That means the phrase is basically:

• how she should remove a broken branch and preserve the roots

Because ramum is the direct object of tollere, and fractum is an adjective agreeing with it.

Agreement:

• ramum = accusative singular masculine
• fractum = accusative singular masculine

So fractum matches ramum in case, number, and gender.

Together they mean a broken branch.

Because radices is the direct object of servare.

• servare radices = to preserve the roots

It is plural because the noun radices means roots. In a gardening or plant-care context, that is very natural: you preserve the root system, conceived as multiple roots.

So both objects are accusative:

• ramum fractum after tollere
• radices after servare