Magistra discipulis dicit ut codices et membranas paratas habeant.

It has two parts:

• the main clause: Magistra discipulis dicit
• the subordinate clause: ut codices et membranas paratas habeant

So the sentence is built like this:

• magistra = the subject
• dicit = the main verb
• discipulis = the person being spoken to
• ut ... habeant = what the teacher tells them to do

This is a very common Latin pattern: a verb of telling, ordering, asking, or advising followed by ut + subjunctive.

Because magistra is the subject of dicit.

The nominative is the case normally used for the subject of a finite verb. Here, magistra means the teacher and she is the one doing the telling.

By itself, dicit usually means says. But Latin dicere can also mean tell when it is used with:

• a person in the dative
• and often a following ut clause

So:

• magistra discipulis dicit = the teacher says to the students
• in natural English, that often becomes the teacher tells the students

So this is not direct quotation like The teacher says, ... but rather The teacher tells the students to ...

Because it is the indirect object: the person to whom something is said.

Latin uses the dative after verbs like dicere for the person addressed:

• dicere alicui = to say to someone

So:

• discipulis = to the students

An English speaker may expect something more like tells the students, where English does not mark the case clearly, but Latin shows that function with the dative ending.

Here it is an indirect command.

It looks like a purpose clause because both constructions use ut + subjunctive, but the function depends on the verb that introduces it.

After a verb like:

• tell
• order
• ask
• advise
• persuade

the ut clause usually expresses what someone is told, ordered, asked, and so on to do.

So here:

• dicit ut ... habeant = tells them to have ...

not

• says in order that ...

Because indirect commands in Latin use ut + the subjunctive.

So after dicit, Latin does not say:

• ut ... habent

but

• ut ... habeant

Habeant is:

• present
• active
• subjunctive
• third person plural

In this sentence it means something like that they should have or, more naturally in English, just to have.

The subject is understood to be the students.

Latin often leaves out subject pronouns when the verb ending already makes the number and person clear. Since habeant is third person plural, we understand they.

From the context, that they refers to discipuli/discipulis, the students.

So the sense is:

• the teacher tells the students that they should have ...
• more natural English: the teacher tells the students to have ...

They are both accusative plural, because they are the things the students are to have ready.

They are the direct objects of habeant:

• codices = books / codices
• membranas = parchments / writing sheets

So:

• habeant codices et membranas = they should have books and parchments

A learner may notice that codices could also be nominative plural in form, but here its job in the sentence shows that it is accusative.

This is a good example of a predicate adjective with habere.

Latin often uses:

• habere + object + adjective

to mean have something in a certain state.

So:

• paratas habeant = they should have [them] ready

The adjective is not describing the subject (the students). It describes the object(s), so it appears in the accusative, not the nominative.

That is why you do not get something like parati habeant here.

As written, paratas is feminine accusative plural, so it matches membranas directly.

That can feel surprising, because in meaning ready seems to apply to both codices and membranas. Latin can sometimes let an adjective placed after two coordinated nouns agree with the nearer noun, especially when that noun is the one immediately next to it.

So a learner can understand the sentence as meaning that the students are to have their materials ready, even though the adjective formally matches membranas.

A more fully regularized agreement for two inanimate nouns of different genders might also be expressed differently, but in this sentence the important beginner point is:

• paratas goes with the object side of the sentence, not with magistra or the understood they
• and its form is feminine plural because of membranas

Because Latin normally does not need one.

The ending of habeant already tells you the subject is:

• third person
• plural

So Latin can simply say habeant and let the reader understand they from the verb form and the context.

English often needs the pronoun, but Latin often does not.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

English depends heavily on position:

• The teacher tells the students ...

Latin can move words around more easily because:

• magistra shows the subject
• discipulis shows the indirect object
• codices and membranas show the objects
• habeant shows the verb and the subject number

So the order here is natural Latin, not something to translate word-for-word into English order. The final placement of habeant also gives the clause a neat ending, which is very common in Latin.