Postea nebula lente discedit, et pastor gregem ad pratum ducit.

Postea means afterward / later and functions as an adverb. Latin often places time words early in the sentence to set the scene first.

So:

• Postea = afterward
• then comes the rest of the statement

Latin word order is more flexible than English, so postea could appear elsewhere, but putting it first is very natural.

Nebula is nominative singular, so it is the subject of discedit.

Breakdown:

• nebula = mist / fog
• nominative singular ending of a first-declension noun

Since discedit is singular (he/she/it departs), nebula fits perfectly as its subject: the mist departs / the fog moves away.

Discedit comes from discedere, meaning to go apart, depart, move away, withdraw.

Form:

• discedit = he/she/it departs
• present tense
• third person singular

Because the subject is nebula, the sense is the mist clears away / moves off / departs.

Latin often uses a simple verb where English might prefer a more idiomatic phrase like the fog lifts or the mist clears.

Lente is an adverb meaning slowly.

It modifies discedit, telling us how the mist departs:

• nebula discedit = the mist departs
• nebula lente discedit = the mist departs slowly

A useful pattern to remember:

• adjective: lentus, lenta, lentum = slow
• adverb: lente = slowly

Classical Latin has no definite article like English the, and no indefinite article like a/an.

So:

• nebula can mean mist, a mist, or the mist
• pastor can mean shepherd, a shepherd, or the shepherd

You decide from context which English article fits best.

Et means and. It joins the two parts of the sentence:

1. Postea nebula lente discedit
2. et pastor gregem ad pratum ducit

So the sentence gives two connected actions:

• the mist moves away
• and the shepherd leads the flock to the meadow

Pastor is in the nominative singular, which marks it as the subject.

Form:

• pastor = shepherd
• nominative singular

The verb ducit is also third person singular (he/she/it leads), so pastor ducit means the shepherd leads.

Even though pastor ends in -or rather than a more familiar ending like -us, it is still nominative singular.

Gregem is accusative singular, because it is the direct object of ducit.

Breakdown:

• dictionary form: grex
• accusative singular: gregem
• meaning: flock / herd

Since the shepherd is leading the flock, Latin puts grex into the accusative:

• pastor gregem ducit = the shepherd leads the flock

This is a very important Latin pattern:

• subject → nominative
• direct object → accusative

Ad means to / toward, and it takes the accusative case.

So:

• ad pratum = to the meadow

Here pratum is accusative singular because it follows ad.

This expresses motion toward a place:

• ducit ad pratum = leads to the meadow

Without ad, the meaning would be different and much less natural here.

Yes, but after the preposition ad, a noun must be in the accusative.

So even though pratum refers to a place, its case is determined by the preposition:

• ad + accusative = to / toward

Thus:

• pratum here is accusative singular
• because of ad

This is different from some other location expressions in Latin, where no preposition may be used, but with ad the accusative is expected.

Both are present tense, third person singular.

• discedit = he/she/it departs
• ducit = he/she/it leads

In this sentence they describe actions happening in the present narrative scene. English may sometimes translate them a little more freely depending on context, but grammatically they are simple present forms.

Yes. Latin word order is much freer because noun endings show grammatical function.

For example, in this sentence:

• nebula is the subject because it is nominative
• gregem is the direct object because it is accusative
• ad pratum shows direction because of the preposition ad

That means Latin can move words around for emphasis or style more easily than English can.

For instance, these would still mean essentially the same thing:

• Postea nebula lente discedit, et pastor gregem ad pratum ducit.
• Postea lente nebula discedit, et pastor ad pratum gregem ducit.

English depends much more heavily on word order to show who is doing what.

Yes. A learner should usually memorize nouns and verbs in their standard dictionary forms.

From this sentence:

• postea = afterward
• nebula, nebulae = mist, fog
• lente = slowly
• discedo, discedere, discessi, discessum = depart, move away
• et = and
• pastor, pastoris = shepherd
• grex, gregis = flock, herd
• ad = to, toward
• pratum, prati = meadow
• duco, ducere, duxi, ductum = lead

This helps you recognize how the forms in the sentence relate to the base vocabulary.