Miles domum et familiam suam desiderat.

Miles is in the nominative singular, which is the case usually used for the subject of a sentence.

A learner might expect a subject ending like -us, but miles belongs to the 3rd declension, so its nominative singular form is simply miles.

So here:

• miles = the soldier → subject
• desiderat = longs for / misses

Together: The soldier longs for ...

Because domum is the accusative singular form of domus.

In this sentence, domum is the direct object of desiderat, just like familiam is. The soldier is longing for home and his family.

So:

• domus = nominative, home/house
• domum = accusative, used here as the object

You may have also seen domum used after verbs of motion to mean homeward or to home, but that is not what is happening here. Here it is simply the thing being longed for.

Here it is best understood as home.

Although domus can literally mean house, in many contexts it carries the warmer sense of home, especially in a sentence like this one, where a soldier longs for what he has left behind.

So domum et familiam suam desiderat is more naturally longs for home and his family than longs for the house and his family.

Because Latin familia is normally a singular noun, just like English family.

It means family, household, or even everyone belonging to the household. So:

• familia = family/household
• familiam = accusative singular, because it is a direct object

Even though a family contains many people, the noun itself is grammatically singular.

Because suam is the reflexive possessive adjective: it refers back to the subject of the sentence.

In this sentence, the subject is miles (the soldier), so:

• familiam suam = his own family / his family
  meaning the family belonging to the soldier

If Latin used eius, that would usually mean his/her family belonging to someone else, not to the subject himself.

So suam is the natural choice because the family belongs to the soldier who is doing the longing.

Suam agrees with familiam, not with miles.

That is a very common point of confusion for English speakers. A possessive adjective in Latin agrees with the noun possessed, in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• familiam is feminine singular accusative
• so the possessive is suam, also feminine singular accusative

It does not match miles. Even though the soldier is masculine, suam is feminine because familia is feminine.

Desiderat is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

from the verb desiderare.

So it means:

• he/she/it longs for
• he/she/it misses
• sometimes desires

Because the subject is miles, we translate it here as the soldier longs for or the soldier misses.

Yes. In this sentence, desiderat takes direct objects in the accusative.

Those objects are:

• domum
• familiam suam

So the structure is:

• Miles = subject
• domum et familiam suam = two direct objects
• desiderat = verb

English often says misses home and his family or longs for home and his family. Latin expresses this with accusative objects.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin shows grammatical relationships through endings, not mainly through position.

English strongly prefers:

• The soldier misses home and his family.

Latin can place words in different orders without changing the core meaning. Here:

• Miles domum et familiam suam desiderat

is perfectly normal. It is also common in Latin to put the verb at the end, as here.

So the order helps style and emphasis more than basic grammar.

Et means and, and here it connects two accusative objects:

• domum
• familiam suam

So the soldier longs for both things:

• home
• his family

This is a simple example of one verb taking two coordinated objects.

Grammatically, yes, but in this sentence longs for or misses is better English.

The Latin verb desiderare can cover ideas like:

• to desire
• to long for
• to miss

With home and family, the emotional sense is stronger, so English usually prefers:

• The soldier longs for home and his family
• The soldier misses home and his family

Those sound more natural than The soldier desires home and his family.