Puella rogat utrum acus satis longa sit, ut tunicam laceram consuat.

Utrum introduces an indirect yes/no question after rogat.

So rogat utrum... means she asks whether...

A native English speaker may expect something more like she asks if..., and that is exactly the job of utrum here.

A few useful notes:

• utrum can introduce a simple whether clause by itself.
• It does not need an unless there is an explicit whether...or... contrast.
• Latin can also use other ways to introduce yes/no questions, but utrum is very common and very clear.

Because this is an indirect question, and Latin normally puts the verb of an indirect question in the subjunctive.

So:

• direct question: estne acus satis longa? = is the needle long enough?
• indirect question: rogat utrum acus satis longa sit = she asks whether the needle is long enough

The change from est to sit is not changing the basic meaning from English is; it is showing that the statement is being reported as a question inside another sentence.

Here consuat is subjunctive because it is in an ut-clause dependent on satis longa.

The idea is:

• satis longa = sufficiently long / long enough
• ut ... consuat = that she can sew ...

So the Latin structure is very close to:

whether the needle is sufficiently long that she can sew the torn tunic

In smoother English, we usually say:

whether the needle is long enough to sew the torn tunic

So this ut clause is best understood as a result/consequence clause after an expression of degree, not as a simple infinitive like English often uses.

Acus is nominative singular feminine.

It is the subject of sit:

• acus ... sit = the needle is / may be

A common point of confusion is that acus ends in -us, which often looks masculine to beginners. But acus is one of those nouns where the ending does not mean it is masculine. It is a feminine fourth-declension noun.

Because longa agrees with acus.

Since acus is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

the adjective describing it must also be:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

So:

• acus longa = a long needle
• here: acus satis longa sit = the needle is long enough

Even though acus ends in -us, it is still feminine, so the adjective must be feminine too.

Satis is an adverb meaning enough or sufficiently.

It modifies the adjective longa:

• longa = long
• satis longa = sufficiently long / long enough

This is a very common Latin pattern:

• satis
  • adjective
• often followed by ut
  • subjunctive

So satis longa sit, ut... means something like is long enough that...

Tunicam laceram is accusative singular feminine.

It is the direct object of consuat:

• consuat tunicam laceram = she may sew the torn tunic

And laceram agrees with tunicam:

• feminine
• singular
• accusative

So the endings match because the adjective must agree with the noun it describes.

Also, the word order could be reversed:

• tunicam laceram
• laceram tunicam

Both are grammatically fine.

The subject is understood to be the girl from puella.

Latin often leaves subject pronouns unstated when the verb ending already gives the person and number. So consuat by itself tells us only he/she/it may sew. Context tells us that here it is she.

That means:

• acus is the subject of sit
• puella is the understood subject of consuat

This is worth noticing, because the nearest noun before consuat is acus, but semantically the girl is the one doing the sewing.

Because Latin has no articles.

So a noun like puella can mean:

• the girl
• a girl

and acus can mean:

• the needle
• a needle

The context decides which English article is best.

That is why Latin sentences often look shorter than their English translations.

The main verb rogat is present tense, so Latin normally uses primary sequence in the subordinate clauses.

That gives:

• sit for the indirect question
• consuat for the ut clause

The sense is contemporaneous with the asking:

• she asks now
• whether the needle is long enough now
• so that she can sew with it

If the main verb were in a past tense, Latin would often shift these subordinate verbs accordingly.

Latin word order is fairly flexible because the endings show each word’s grammatical role.

This sentence is perfectly natural, but other orders are possible. For example, Latin could move tunicam laceram earlier or later without changing the basic grammar.

What the current order does well is this:

• Puella rogat gives the main action first
• utrum acus satis longa sit gives the question being asked
• ut tunicam laceram consuat completes the idea of long enough

So the order is not random, but it is much freer than English word order.