Parvus agnus prope ovem stat et balare incipit.

Because parvus agnus is the subject of the sentence: the little lamb. In Latin, the subject is usually in the nominative case.

• agnus = nominative singular, lamb
• parvus = nominative singular masculine, small / little

They match because adjectives agree with the nouns they describe in gender, number, and case.

If you had parvum agnum, that would be accusative, which would normally mean the lamb is a direct object, not the subject.

Because prope is a preposition that takes the accusative case when it means near.

So:

• ovis = dictionary form / nominative singular, sheep
• ovem = accusative singular, used after prope

That is why Latin says prope ovem = near the sheep.

Yes, ovis is usually a feminine noun, so its accusative singular is ovem.

Latin nouns have grammatical gender, and that gender does not always match what an English speaker might expect. In this sentence:

• agnus is masculine: lamb
• ovis is feminine: sheep / ewe

So ovem is feminine accusative singular because of the noun ovis, and agnum would belong to agnus, which is a different word.

Stat comes from stāre, meaning to stand.

So stat means:

• he/she/it stands
• sometimes more generally, is standing

Latin often uses a more specific verb than English does. English might say the lamb is near the sheep, but Latin here says the lamb stands near the sheep, which gives a clearer picture.

By contrast:

• est = is
• stat = stands

So stat is more vivid and physical.

Because incipit often takes an infinitive: it means begins to ...

So:

• incipit = he/she/it begins
• balare = to bleat

Together:

• balare incipit = begins to bleat

This is very similar to English begins to bleat.

If Latin used a finite verb there, it would be a different structure.

Incipit is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• from incipere = to begin

So it means:

• he begins
• she begins
• it begins

Here the subject is agnus, so incipit means the lamb begins.

Because one subject can do more than one action.

The subject parvus agnus does both things:

1. stat = stands
2. incipit balare = begins to bleat

The word et simply joins the two verbal ideas: stands and begins to bleat.

This works much like English: The little lamb stands near the sheep and begins to bleat.

Yes, Latin word order matters for emphasis and style, but not as rigidly as in English, because the endings show the grammatical roles.

So this sentence could be rearranged in several ways without changing the basic meaning, for example:

• Agnus parvus prope ovem stat et balare incipit.
• Prope ovem parvus agnus stat et balare incipit.

The most important thing is that the endings still show:

• agnus = subject
• ovem = object of prope

English relies heavily on word order; Latin relies much more on endings.

Classical Latin usually has no articles.

So agnus can mean:

• a lamb
• the lamb

And ovem can mean:

• a sheep
• the sheep

Which one you choose in English depends on the context. Latin leaves that unstated unless the writer wants to make it clear in some other way.

They agree in:

• gender: masculine
• number: singular
• case: nominative

That is a basic Latin rule: an adjective must agree with its noun in gender, number, and case, even though the adjective and noun may belong to different declensions.

So:

• agnus = masculine, singular, nominative
• parvus = masculine, singular, nominative

That is why parvus has the ending -us here.

Ovem comes from ovis, ovis, a 3rd-declension noun.

Its common forms are:

• nominative singular: ovis
• accusative singular: ovem
• genitive singular: ovis

Learners often expect a noun meaning sheep to behave simply, but ovis is a useful example of a 3rd-declension noun with its own pattern.

Yes. Balare is the present active infinitive of balare, meaning to bleat.

Its infinitive ending -are is the normal marker of the first conjugation.

So if you recognize -are, that is a good clue that you are looking at a first-conjugation infinitive.

A common classroom pronunciation would be something like:

PAR-woos AG-noos PRO-peh O-wem staht et bah-LAH-reh in-KI-pit

A few helpful points:

• v is often pronounced like w in restored classical pronunciation
• g in agnus is always hard, as in go
• c in incipit is also hard, never like s
• e is pronounced clearly, not reduced like many English vowels

So the sentence sounds much more evenly pronounced than an English sentence would.