Mater rogat utrum tonsor etiam barbam avi cras curaturus sit.

There are two clauses:

• Mater rogat = Mother asks
• utrum tonsor etiam barbam avi cras curaturus sit = whether the barber is also going to take care of grandfather’s beard tomorrow

So:

• Mater is the subject of rogat
• tonsor is the subject of curaturus sit
• barbam is the object of that second verb phrase

Latin often makes this clearer by case endings rather than strict word order.

Utrum introduces an indirect yes/no question. In English, the natural translation is whether.

So:

• Mater rogat utrum... = Mother asks whether...

You will often see utrum when Latin is reporting a question rather than asking it directly. If there were two explicit alternatives, Latin could say utrum ... an ... = whether ... or ....

Because this is an indirect question, and in Latin indirect questions normally take the subjunctive.

So although English just says is or will be, Latin uses:

• sit = present subjunctive of sum

That is why you do not get est here.

Curaturus is the future active participle of curo, and sit is the subjunctive of sum.

Together, curaturus sit means something like:

• is going to take care of
• will take care of
• is about to attend to

Latin often uses this kind of construction in subordinate clauses because there is no ordinary future subjunctive. So instead of a simple future verb, Latin builds the idea with:

• future participle + subjunctive of sum

Because curaturus describes the person who will do the action, not the thing receiving the action.

Here the doer is:

• tonsor = the barber

So the participle is:

• curaturus = masculine singular nominative

It agrees with tonsor, not with barbam, because barbam is the object, not the subject.

Barbam is accusative singular.

It is the direct object of curaturus sit / curare: it is the thing the barber will take care of.

Basic form:

• barba = beard
• barbam = beard, as object

Avi is genitive singular here, meaning of the grandfather or grandfather’s.

So:

• barbam avi = grandfather’s beard / the beard of the grandfather

A learner may notice that avi can look like another form in other contexts, but here the meaning and syntax clearly show it is genitive singular.

No. Although curo can sometimes look like English cure, here it means take care of, attend to, or more naturally in context:

• trim
• groom
• shave
• tend to

So barbam curare is something like to attend to the beard.

Etiam means also, too, or sometimes even.

Here it most naturally means also:

• whether the barber will also take care of grandfather’s beard tomorrow

This suggests that there is something else already under discussion, and the beard is an additional thing.

Cras means tomorrow, and it goes with the action of curaturus sit, not with rogat.

So the idea is:

• Mother asks whether tomorrow the barber will take care of the beard

not:

• Mother asks tomorrow

Latin word order is flexible, so cras does not have to stand right next to the verb it belongs with.

Latin relies much more on endings than English does, so its word order is more flexible.

This sentence is arranged in a very Latin way:

• Mater rogat first gives the main statement
• utrum immediately signals an indirect question
• tonsor introduces the subject of that question
• barbam avi gives the object phrase
• cras adds the time
• curaturus sit comes at the end, where Latin often places the verb

English needs a tighter order to show grammar, but Latin can move words around more freely for emphasis or style.

Because this is an indirect question, not an indirect statement.

Latin usually uses:

• accusative + infinitive for reported statements
• interrogative word + subjunctive for reported questions

So after rogat here, Latin does not use an infinitive clause. Instead it uses:

• utrum ... sit

because the content being reported is a question: whether the barber will do it.