Mater filio nuntiat cenam iam paratam esse.

Because filio means to the son or for the son, and nuntiare commonly takes the person informed in the dative.

So in this sentence:

• mater = the mother
• filio = to her son
• nuntiat = announces / reports

A very literal skeleton is:

The mother announces to her son ...

This is a common Latin pattern with verbs of telling, reporting, announcing, and showing.

Because it is the subject of an indirect statement, and in Latin the subject of an indirect statement goes into the accusative.

English says:

• The mother announces that dinner is already ready.

Latin often says this with an accusative + infinitive construction:

• cenam ... esse

Here:

• cenam = the subject of the indirect statement
• esse = to be

So although dinner is logically the thing that is ready, Latin puts it in the accusative because it belongs to indirect statement syntax.

An indirect statement is a way of reporting what someone says, thinks, knows, hears, announces, and so on.

In English, we usually use that:

• She announces that dinner is ready.

In Latin, a very common way to do this is:

• accusative subject + infinitive

So:

• cenam iam paratam esse = that dinner is already prepared / ready

This whole phrase is the content of what the mother announces.

Because this is not a separate main clause. It is part of an indirect statement.

Compare:

• direct statement: cena iam parata est = dinner is already ready
• indirect statement: cenam iam paratam esse = that dinner is already ready

When a statement becomes indirect in Latin:

• the subject usually becomes accusative
• the finite verb becomes an infinitive

So parata est becomes paratam esse.

Because paratam agrees with cenam, and cenam is accusative singular feminine.

The noun cena is feminine, so any adjective or participle describing it must match it in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• cenam = accusative singular feminine
• paratam = accusative singular feminine

So paratam means prepared/ready, agreeing with cenam.

It is the perfect passive participle of parare, meaning prepared.

In this sentence, the natural English meaning is often ready:

• cenam iam paratam esse = that dinner is already ready

But more literally it is:

• that dinner has already been prepared

In context, both ideas are very close.

Because the tense of the infinitive in Latin indirect statement shows time relative to the main verb, not necessarily the same kind of tense system English uses.

Here:

• nuntiat = she announces
• paratam esse = to be prepared / to have been prepared and now be in that state

The participle paratam already carries the idea that the preparation is completed. The infinitive esse makes the whole thing a present-state idea: the dinner is in a prepared state at the time of the announcement.

So the sentence means something like:

• She announces that dinner is already ready.

I am means already by itself—just kidding.

Iam means already or sometimes now depending on context.

Here it modifies the idea of paratam esse:

• cenam iam paratam esse = that dinner is already ready

So it tells us that the dinner has reached this prepared state by now.

Latin word order is flexible, so the sentence could be rearranged without changing the basic meaning, as long as the forms stay clear.

The given order is:

• Mater filio nuntiat cenam iam paratam esse.

This is fairly natural:

• mater first: the topic or subject
• filio next: the person being told
• nuntiat: the main verb
• then the indirect statement: cenam iam paratam esse

Latin often puts the reported content after the verb of saying or announcing, but other orders are possible for emphasis.

Not exactly.

The main thing announced is not just dinner. What is announced is the whole idea:

• cenam iam paratam esse

So the content of the announcement is the entire indirect statement.

In other words:

• not simply she announces dinner
• but she announces that dinner is already ready

That is why it is better to understand cenam as the accusative subject of the infinitive esse, not as a normal direct object of nuntiat.

Nuntiat is present indicative active, third person singular:

• nuntio, nuntiare = announce, report
• nuntiat = she announces or the mother announces

Because mater is singular, the verb is singular too.

Depending on context, English might translate it as:

• announces
• is announcing
• sometimes even announced in narrative context, though the basic Latin form is present

Sometimes Latin can omit esse, especially in certain styles and especially when the meaning is clear. But in a textbook sentence like this, including esse is completely normal and straightforward.

So cenam iam paratam esse is the full, clear form, and it is exactly what a learner should expect to see.

Because in this construction Latin normally does not need a separate word for that.

English says:

• The mother announces that dinner is ready.

Latin usually expresses this by using the accusative-and-infinitive construction instead:

• cenam ... esse

So the idea of English that is built into the structure, not usually expressed by a separate conjunction.

Yes. Here cenam clearly means dinner as the meal.

So the sentence is about the food being prepared, not about the abstract event of dining.

That is why paratam makes good sense: the meal has been prepared and is ready.