Mater puellas hortatur ut mane ad pratum veniant et vaccas numerent.

Because puellas is the direct object of hortatur.

The verb hortor, hortari, hortatus sum means to encourage, urge, or exhort. In this sentence, the mother is urging the girls, so puellas is the thing/person directly affected by the verb.

• mater = mother
• puellas = the girls (accusative plural)

So the structure is:

• Mater puellas hortatur = The mother encourages the girls

Hortatur means encourages, urges, or exhorts.

It comes from the dictionary form hortor, hortari, hortatus sum, which is a deponent verb. That means it looks passive in form but has an active meaning.

So even though hortatur has a passive-looking ending, it does not mean is encouraged. It means:

• she encourages
• she urges

Here:

• Mater puellas hortatur = The mother urges the girls

After verbs of urging, advising, persuading, commanding, and similar ideas, Latin often uses ut plus the subjunctive.

So:

• hortatur ut veniant = she urges them to come

This is very common Latin structure. In English we usually say:

• The mother urges the girls to come

But Latin often expresses that idea as:

• The mother urges the girls that they should come

That is why ut appears here.

They are subjunctive because they are inside the ut clause after hortatur.

This is the standard construction after verbs like:

• moneo = warn
• rogo = ask
• impero = command
• hortor = urge

So:

• ut ... veniant
• ut ... numerent

are both part of what the mother is urging the girls to do.

In other words, the subjunctive here does not mainly show doubt; it shows that the clause depends on a verb of urging.

They are plural because their implied subject is the girls.

Latin often leaves out a subject pronoun when it is clear from context. Here the girls are the ones being urged, so they are also the ones who are supposed to come and count.

So the sense is:

• Mater puellas hortatur ut [puellae] mane ad pratum veniant et vaccas numerent.

The implied subject of both verbs is:

• they = the girls

That is why both verbs are 3rd person plural.

They are present subjunctive.

Why? Because the main verb hortatur is present tense, and the action in the subordinate clause is happening at the same time as, or after, the urging. Latin normally uses the present subjunctive in that situation.

So:

• hortatur = present
• veniant, numerent = present subjunctive

This follows the normal sequence after a primary tense main verb.

Here mane is an adverb meaning:

• early
• in the morning

So:

• ut mane ad pratum veniant = that they should come to the meadow early / in the morning

A learner might confuse this with the English-looking word mane, or with the Latin imperative mane! from maneo meaning stay! But here it is simply the adverb mane.

Because ad takes the accusative case.

Ad usually means:

• to
• toward
• up to
• sometimes at or near, depending on context

Since the girls are coming to the meadow, Latin uses:

• ad pratum

with pratum in the accusative singular.

Because vaccas is the direct object of numerent.

The verb numero means count. What are they counting? The cows.

So:

• vaccas numerent = they should count the cows

That makes vaccas accusative plural.

It joins two verbs in the same ut clause.

The structure is:

• ut mane ad pratum veniant et vaccas numerent

That means:

• that they should come early to the meadow and count the cows

Both veniant and numerent depend on the same ut and have the same implied subject, the girls.

Because Latin often prefers ut + subjunctive after verbs of urging or commanding, where English often uses an infinitive.

English:

• The mother urges the girls to come and count the cows

Latin:

• Mater puellas hortatur ut ... veniant et ... numerent

So this is not strange Latin; it is the normal way Latin expresses that idea.

Grammatically, ut often means that or so that, but in this sentence the most natural English translation is usually to or that they should.

Very literal:

• The mother urges the girls that they should come early to the meadow and count the cows

Better English:

• The mother urges the girls to come early to the meadow and count the cows

So although ut can sometimes be translated so that, that wording is usually less natural here.

Because Latin has no definite article like English the.

So mater can mean:

• mother
• the mother
• sometimes even a mother

depending on context.

In this sentence, English naturally uses the mother or possibly mother, but Latin simply says mater.

The word order is meaningful, but Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show the grammar.

This sentence is:

• Mater puellas hortatur ut mane ad pratum veniant et vaccas numerent.

A Roman could move some parts around without changing the basic meaning, because:

• mater is nominative
• puellas is accusative
• veniant and numerent are clearly plural verbs
• vaccas is accusative
• ad pratum is a prepositional phrase

The current order is natural and clear, but Latin relies much more on endings than English does.

The sentence has two main parts:

1. Main clause

   • Mater puellas hortatur
   • The mother urges the girls

2. Subordinate clause introduced by ut

   • ut mane ad pratum veniant et vaccas numerent
   • to come early to the meadow and count the cows

So the full structure is:

• [Main clause] + [ut + subjunctive clause]

That is a very common pattern in Latin after verbs of urging, advising, and commanding.