Mater etiam libros veteres in bibliotheca legit.

Latin does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So:

• mater can mean mother, a mother, or the mother
• libros can mean books, some books, or the books
• bibliotheca can mean library, a library, or the library

Context tells you which English article makes the best sense.

Mater is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject of a sentence.

There are two big clues:

• mater is nominative
• legit is third-person singular, so it matches a singular subject

Meanwhile, libros is accusative, so it is not the subject.

Because grammatical gender and declension are not the same thing.

A lot of feminine Latin nouns do end in -a, but not all of them. Mater is a feminine third-declension noun, so its nominative singular form is mater, not matra or anything in -a.

So:

• feminine tells you the noun’s gender
• third declension tells you what pattern of endings it uses

Libros is the accusative plural of liber, meaning it is the direct object of legit.

In other words, these are the things being read.

So:

• liber = book
• libros = books, as the object of the verb

Latin uses case endings to show a word’s role in the sentence, so libros tells you what Mother reads.

Because adjectives in Latin must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here veteres describes libros, so it must match it:

• libros = masculine, plural, accusative
• veteres = masculine, plural, accusative

That is why you get libros veteres for old books.

Latin adjective order is much freer than English word order.

Both of these are possible:

• libros veteres
• veteres libros

They mean the same basic thing: old books.

Putting the adjective after the noun is very normal in Latin. The difference is usually more about style or emphasis than grammar.

Because in can take two different cases with two different meanings:

• in + ablative = in / on / at, showing location
• in + accusative = into / onto, showing motion toward

Here the idea is reading in the library, so it is a location, not movement. That is why Latin uses in bibliotheca.

If the sentence meant Mother goes into the library, then you would expect in bibliothecam.

Etiam usually means also, too, or sometimes even.

In this sentence, it most naturally means also or too. It adds something to the statement, as in Mother also reads old books in the library.

Its exact emphasis depends on context:

• Mother also...
• also reads...
• sometimes even reads old books too

Latin adverbs are flexible, so context helps you decide what is being highlighted most.

Because Latin often likes to put the verb near or at the end.

This is a very common Latin word order pattern, but it is not a strict rule. The sentence could be rearranged and still make sense, because the endings already show which word is the subject and which is the object.

So verb-final order is common and natural, but not required.

It can be ambiguous in ordinary spelling.

Without macrons, legit can represent:

• legit = reads (present)
• lēgit = read / has read (perfect)

In many printed Latin texts, macrons are omitted, so you have to use context to decide. In a beginner sentence like this, the intended meaning is often the present, but the form by itself can be read either way.

Yes, often you can.

For example, these are all possible Latin word orders:

• Mater etiam libros veteres in bibliotheca legit.
• In bibliotheca mater etiam libros veteres legit.
• Libros veteres mater in bibliotheca legit.

The core meaning stays similar because Latin relies heavily on endings, not just position.

What changes most is emphasis:

• putting in bibliotheca first highlights the place
• putting libros veteres first highlights what is being read
• putting legit last gives the sentence a very normal Latin finish