Pater non dubitat quin puella, quae conchas amat, etiam rete piscatoris libenter spectet.

Because non dubitare quin is a standard Latin construction.

A simple way to remember it is:

• dubitare an ... = to doubt whether ...
• non dubitare quin ... = not to doubt that ...

So Pater non dubitat quin ... spectet means that the father has no doubt that the girl will or does gladly look at the fisherman’s net.

For a learner, it is best to treat non dubitat quin as a set pattern rather than trying to translate quin literally every time.

Because a clause introduced by quin after non dubitat normally takes the subjunctive.

So:

• non dubitat quin ... spectet

is the expected grammar.

This does not mean the father is uncertain. In English, the subjunctive often suggests doubt or unreality, but in Latin the subjunctive is used in many kinds of subordinate clauses simply because the grammar of the construction requires it.

Here spectet is present subjunctive, which fits the present main verb non dubitat.

This is mainly a matter of sequence of tenses.

The main verb non dubitat is present, so it is a primary tense. After a primary tense, Latin often uses the present subjunctive for action happening at the same time as, or after, the main verb.

So spectet means roughly:

• she is looking / she looks
• or she will look

depending on context.

The exact English tense can vary, but the Latin grammar is straightforward: present main verb, present subjunctive subordinate verb.

The subject is puella.

In the sentence:

• Pater is the subject of non dubitat
• puella is the subject of spectet

So the structure is:

• Pater non dubitat = the father does not doubt
• quin puella ... spectet = that the girl ... looks / will look

Even though puella comes right after quin, it is still the subject of the subordinate verb spectet.

Quae is a relative pronoun meaning who here.

It refers back to puella, so it must match puella in:

• gender: feminine
• number: singular

Its case is nominative because it is the subject of amat.

So:

• puella = the girl
• quae conchas amat = who loves shells

This relative clause gives extra information about the girl.

Because quae conchas amat is an ordinary descriptive relative clause.

It simply tells us a fact about the girl: she loves shells. Latin normally uses the indicative in that kind of relative clause.

So:

• quae conchas amat = who loves shells

If the clause had some special purpose, characteristic, or indirect-speech-like force, a subjunctive might appear. But nothing like that is happening here. This is just a normal factual statement.

Because conchas is the direct object of amat.

The girl is loving shells, so shells receives the action of the verb:

• amat quid? = she loves what?
• conchas

So conchas is accusative plural.

Its dictionary form is concha, conchae, a first-declension noun. The accusative plural ending is -as.

Because rete is a neuter noun of the third declension, and in many neuter nouns the nominative and accusative singular have the same form.

So:

• nominative singular: rete
• accusative singular: rete

That means the direct object of spectet can still appear as rete, not retem.

This often surprises English speakers because they expect the object form to look different, but with neuter nouns it very often does not.

Piscatoris is genitive singular of piscator, meaning of the fisherman.

It modifies rete:

• rete = net
• piscatoris = of the fisherman

So together:

• rete piscatoris = the fisherman’s net

This is a very common Latin pattern: one noun in the genitive shows possession or close association with another noun.

They add shades of meaning:

• etiam = also or even
• libenter = gladly, willingly, with pleasure

So:

• etiam rete piscatoris suggests that the net is something the girl also looks at, perhaps in addition to the shells she loves.
• libenter spectet means she looks at it gladly or with pleasure.

Both are adverbs, but they do slightly different jobs:

• etiam adds emphasis or inclusion
• libenter tells us the manner or attitude of the action

Yes, it is perfectly normal Latin.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical relationships. This sentence is arranged in a way that is quite natural:

• main clause first: Pater non dubitat
• then the quin clause
• inside that clause, the relative clause is inserted after puella:
  • puella, quae conchas amat,
• then the rest:
  • etiam rete piscatoris libenter spectet

A more mechanical English-style order would be something like:

• Pater non dubitat quin puella etiam rete piscatoris libenter spectet, quae conchas amat

but that would be much less natural in Latin, because the relative clause usually comes right after the noun it describes. So placing quae conchas amat immediately after puella is exactly what we would expect.