Postea soror ad macellum venit et holera eligit.

Postea is an adverb meaning afterwards, later, or next. It tells you when the action happens.

In Postea soror ad macellum venit et holera eligit, it sets the scene for the whole sentence: Afterwards, the sister comes to the market and chooses vegetables.

Latin often puts time words like postea near the beginning, but that is not required.

Latin has no articles, so there is no word for the or a/an.

That means soror can mean:

• sister
• the sister
• a sister

You decide from context which English translation sounds best.

Because ad means to or toward, and when Latin uses ad for motion toward a place, the following noun goes into the accusative case.

So:

• ad = to/toward
• macellum = accusative singular

Together, ad macellum means to the market.

Macellum is a noun meaning market or more specifically a provision market / food market.

It is a neuter second-declension noun. Its basic form is macellum, macelli.

In this sentence, it appears as macellum because it is the accusative singular after ad.

Because the subject is soror, which is third person singular: she.

The verb venit means he/she/it comes.

From venire (to come):

• venio = I come
• venis = you come
• venit = he/she/it comes

So soror ... venit = the sister comes.

Yes. In writing, venit can represent either:

• present: he/she comes
• perfect: he/she came

In Classical Latin, these were distinguished by vowel length in pronunciation, but in normal writing they often look the same.

In this sentence, because eligit is clearly present, venit is naturally understood as present too: comes.

Latin usually does not need subject pronouns like she, because the verb ending already shows the person and number.

So:

• venit already means she comes
• eligit already means she chooses

The noun soror is stated once to identify who she is. After that, Latin does not need to repeat a pronoun.

Eligit is the third person singular present active indicative of eligere, meaning to choose or to pick out.

So:

• eligo = I choose
• eligis = you choose
• eligit = he/she/it chooses

Since the subject is soror, the meaning is she chooses.

Holera is the accusative plural. It is the direct object of eligit, because it is the thing being chosen.

So:

• eligit = chooses
• holera = vegetables

She chooses what?
holera

That is why it is in the accusative.

Holera means vegetables, greens, or garden produce.

It is a neuter plural form, from a noun referring to vegetables or greens. In simple beginner translations, vegetables is the most natural choice.

Et means and. It joins the two actions done by the same subject:

• venit = comes
• eligit = chooses

So the sentence says that the sister comes to the market and chooses vegetables.

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

English relies heavily on position:

• The sister chooses vegetables

Latin can move words around more freely:

• soror holera eligit
• holera soror eligit
• eligit soror holera

These can all mean roughly the same thing, though the emphasis may change.

In your sentence, Postea soror ad macellum venit et holera eligit, the order is natural and clear, but not the only possible order.

Yes, if the context already made it clear who the subject was.

For example:

• Postea ad macellum venit et holera eligit.

This would still mean Afterwards, she comes to the market and chooses vegetables.

However, including soror makes the subject explicit and is often helpful, especially in beginner sentences.

Literally it is comes to the market.

In English, depending on context, you might also say:

• comes to the market
• goes to the market
• arrives at the market

But the Latin verb here is venit from venire, so the most direct translation is comes. The exact English wording may vary depending on the style of translation.