Serva dominam ad horreum comitatur, ubi custos merces servat.

Because serva is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of a finite verb.

Here, serva means the slave woman / maidservant and it matches the verb comitatur in number: both are singular.

So the main clause is built like this:

• serva = subject
• dominam = direct object
• ad horreum = direction
• comitatur = verb

So serva is the one doing the accompanying.

Dominam is the direct object of comitatur, so it appears in the accusative singular.

A learner might expect something unusual here because comitor, comitari, comitatus sum is a deponent verb. Even though it has passive-looking forms, it still has an active meaning, and it can still take a direct object.

So:

• serva = the maidservant
• dominam = the mistress / lady, the person being accompanied

In other words, the maidservant accompanies the mistress.

Because comitatur comes from a deponent verb.

A deponent verb:

• has passive forms
• but an active meaning

So comitatur is grammatically a passive-looking form, but it means she accompanies, not she is accompanied.

This is one of the most important things to learn about Latin verbs: form and meaning do not always line up in the way an English speaker expects.

Comitatur is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• indicative mood
• from the deponent verb comitor, comitari

So it means he/she accompanies or is accompanying, depending on how you want to render the Latin present in English.

Because the subject is serva, here it means she accompanies.

The preposition ad takes the accusative and usually means to, toward, or up to.

So:

• ad = to / toward
• horreum = accusative singular of horreum, warehouse or granary

Together, ad horreum means to the warehouse.

This is a standard Latin way to express motion toward a place.

Ubi here means where and introduces a subordinate clause:

• ubi custos merces servat
• where the guard watches/keeps the goods

It refers back to horreum:

• ad horreum = to the warehouse
• ubi... = where...

So the second clause describes the warehouse as the place where the guard keeps the goods.

Not exactly. Ubi is usually called a relative adverb or simply an adverb meaning where.

It works a bit like English where in a sentence like:

• the house where he lives

So in this sentence, ubi connects the warehouse with the clause that follows:

• the warehouse where the guard keeps the goods

It does a job similar to a relative pronoun, but grammatically it is not a pronoun.

Because custos is in the nominative singular, so it is the subject of servat.

The clause is:

• custos = the guard
• merces = the goods
• servat = guards/keeps/watches

So the guard is the one doing the action in the ubi clause.

Here merces is accusative plural, the direct object of servat.

From the noun merx, mercis meaning goods / merchandise, the accusative plural is merces.

So:

• custos = subject
• merces = object
• servat = verb

That gives the guard keeps/guards the goods.

A learner may notice that merces can look confusing, because the form can resemble other case forms in Latin. In this sentence, the sense and syntax make it clear that it is the object.

Servat is from servo, servare, which can mean save, preserve, keep, watch, or guard, depending on context.

In this sentence, with custos and merces, the most natural meaning is something like:

• guards the goods
• keeps the goods safe
• watches over the goods

So the exact English wording may vary, but the basic idea is that the guard is protecting or keeping the merchandise.

Yes, they look similar, but they are different words.

• serva = a noun, meaning slave woman / maidservant
• servat = a verb form, meaning he/she keeps, guards, watches

They come from different lexical items:

• serva from servus/serva
• servat from servo, servare

This is a very common beginner issue in Latin: words can look alike because Latin uses many recurring endings.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show each word’s role.

English depends heavily on word order:

• The maidservant accompanies the mistress

Latin can move words around more freely because the endings show what is subject and object:

• serva = nominative, so subject
• dominam = accusative, so object

Also, Latin often places the verb near the end of the clause, as in:

• Serva dominam ad horreum comitatur
• ubi custos merces servat

That order is very natural in Latin prose.

Yes, to a large extent.

Because the cases show the grammatical roles, Latin could reorder many of these words without changing the basic meaning. For example, the main clause could appear in other orders and still mean roughly the same thing.

However, word order in Latin is not random. Different arrangements can change:

• emphasis
• style
• rhythm
• what the writer wants to foreground

So the given order is not the only possible one, but it is a normal and meaningful choice.

Latin has no articles like English the or a/an.

So:

• serva can mean a maidservant or the maidservant
• dominam can mean a mistress or the mistress
• custos can mean a guard or the guard

You decide from the context which English article fits best.

That is why the same Latin sentence can often be translated in slightly different but equally correct ways.

No. Custos is a noun that can refer to a male or female guard, depending on context.

Its grammatical form here is nominative singular, but that does not by itself force the natural gender to be male.

So if the meaning already provided to the learner says guard, watchman, or guardess/female guard, the Latin form itself does not need to change here.

There are two clauses:

1. Serva dominam ad horreum comitatur

   • the main clause

2. ubi custos merces servat

   • a subordinate clause introduced by ubi

The second clause tells you more about the place mentioned in the first clause: the warehouse is the place where the guard keeps the goods.