Coquus carnem porci parat, et serva gallinam lavat.

Because coquus is in the nominative singular, the case typically used for the subject of a sentence.

• coquus = cook
• nominative singular ending: -us

So in Coquus carnem porci parat, coquus is the one doing the action of parat.

Because carnem is in the accusative singular, the case commonly used for a direct object.

• dictionary form: caro = flesh, meat
• accusative singular: carnem

So carnem is the thing being prepared.

A very common pattern in Latin is:

• nominative = subject
• accusative = direct object

So here:

• coquus = subject
• carnem = object

Because porci here is genitive singular, meaning of the pig.

So:

• porcus = pig
• porci = of the pig

That makes carnem porci mean the meat of the pig or more naturally pork.

If it were porcum, that would be accusative singular, which would usually make it a direct object, and that would not fit the structure here.

Literally, it means the meat of the pig.

In smoother English, that is often just pork.

So Latin is expressing the idea with a noun + genitive phrase:

• carnem = meat
• porci = of the pig

Together: meat of the pig

Because serva is also in the nominative singular, so it is the subject of lavat.

• serva = female slave, slave woman, maidservant
• nominative singular ending: -a

So serva gallinam lavat means that the slave woman is the one washing the chicken/hen.

A learner should be careful not to confuse serva with the English word serve. Here it is a noun, not a verb.

Because it is the direct object of lavat.

• dictionary form: gallina = hen, chicken
• accusative singular: gallinam

So serva gallinam lavat means the slave woman washes the hen/chicken.

Again, Latin is marking the object by its ending, not mainly by word order.

Both are third-person singular present active indicative verbs.

• parat comes from parare = to prepare
• lavat comes from lavare = to wash

Third-person singular means:

• he prepares
• she prepares
• it prepares

and

• he washes
• she washes
• it washes

In this sentence, the subjects are singular:

• coquus ... parat = the cook prepares
• serva ... lavat = the slave woman washes

Because classical Latin has no articles like English the and a/an.

So:

• coquus can mean the cook or a cook
• serva can mean the slave woman or a slave woman
• gallinam can mean the hen/chicken or a hen/chicken

The context or the translation choice tells you which sounds best in English.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show how words function.

In English, word order does a lot of the grammatical work:

• The cook prepares the meat

If you scramble that in English, the meaning may change or become unclear.

In Latin, endings already show the roles:

• coquus = subject
• carnem = object

So Latin can often move words around without changing the basic meaning.

This sentence uses a fairly straightforward order, but it still does not depend on word order as heavily as English does.

Et means and.

It joins the two clauses:

• Coquus carnem porci parat
• serva gallinam lavat

So the full sentence is:

• The cook prepares pork, and the slave woman washes the hen/chicken.

Because it has two different finite verbs:

• parat
• lavat

Each verb has its own subject and object:

1. Coquus carnem porci parat
2. serva gallinam lavat

These are linked by et.

So the sentence is really two simple statements joined together.

No.

• coquus is a second-declension masculine noun
• serva is a first-declension feminine noun

That is why their nominative singular endings are different:

• coquus
• serva

And their accusative forms would also be different:

• second declension masculine often has accusative singular -um
• first declension often has accusative singular -am

You can already see this pattern with gallina → gallinam.

A simple classroom pronunciation would be something like:

• COH-kwus KAR-nem POR-kee PA-rat, et SER-wa gal-LEE-nam LA-wat

A few helpful notes:

• c is always hard, like k
• qu sounds like kw
• v in restored classical pronunciation sounds like English w
• g is always hard, as in go

So:

• coquus sounds roughly like co-kwus
• serva sounds roughly like ser-wa
• lavat sounds roughly like la-wat

This sentence is a very useful case review:

• coquus — nominative singular, subject
• carnem — accusative singular, direct object
• porci — genitive singular, of the pig
• serva — nominative singular, subject
• gallinam — accusative singular, direct object

So the sentence gives you three important cases at once:

• nominative = who does the action
• accusative = what receives the action
• genitive = of something