Mater vinum omnino non bibit.

Mater is an irregular-looking but very common noun. It belongs to the third declension, not the first declension.

So:

• mater = mother in the nominative singular form
• it is the subject of the sentence

Many feminine nouns in Latin do end in -a, but not all of them do. A word does not have to end in -a to be feminine.

Vinum means wine, and here it is the direct object: it tells you what the mother does not drink.

The verb bibit means drinks, so the thing being drunk is put in the accusative case.

For vinum, the forms nominative singular and accusative singular both happen to be vinum. This is normal for many neuter nouns in Latin.

So in this sentence:

• mater = the subject
• vinum = the direct object

Omnino is an adverb. In this sentence it adds emphasis to the negation.

With non, it gives the sense of:

• entirely not
• not at all
• absolutely not

So omnino non bibit means something like does not drink at all.

Yes, non by itself already makes the verb negative:

• non bibit = does not drink

Adding omnino makes the negation stronger:

• omnino non bibit = does not drink at all

So omnino is not required for basic negation, but it adds emphasis.

In Latin, non usually goes directly before the word or phrase it negates. Here it negates the verb:

• non bibit = does not drink

That is the most normal placement.

Latin word order is flexible, but non commonly comes right before the verb when the verb is being negated.

Bibit is the third person singular form of bibere, meaning to drink.

So bibit means:

• he drinks
• she drinks
• it drinks

In this sentence, because the subject is mater, it means she drinks.

With non, it becomes she does not drink.

We know because mater is in the nominative case, which is the normal case for the subject of a sentence.

Also, the verb bibit is third person singular, so it matches a singular subject like mater.

So the structure is:

• mater = subject
• vinum = object
• omnino non bibit = does not drink at all

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

So:

• mater can mean mother, a mother, or the mother
• vinum can mean wine, some wine, or the wine

You decide from context which English translation sounds best.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings help show each word's role.

A very common neutral Latin pattern is:

• subject + object + verb

So:

• Mater = subject
• vinum = object
• bibit = verb

The adverbs omnino non go before the verb they modify.

Latin could rearrange these words for emphasis, but this version is perfectly normal.

Yes, it could.

Because bibit already tells you the subject is third person singular, Latin often leaves the subject pronoun—or even the noun—unstated if the context is clear.

So:

• vinum omnino non bibit could mean she does not drink wine at all, if everyone already knows who she is.

However, including mater makes the subject explicit.

Yes, this is a famous point for beginners.

Written without vowel marks, bibit can represent either:

• bĭbit = drinks
• bībit = drank

In ordinary texts, Latin was usually written without macrons, so context tells you which meaning is intended.

In this sentence, since the meaning has already been given to the learner, you simply take it as the intended tense here.

Latin verbs usually contain the person and number within the verb ending itself.

The ending -t in bibit tells you the verb is:

• third person
• singular

So bibit already means he/she/it drinks.

That is why Latin often does not need an explicit subject pronoun like she.

The dictionary forms are:

• mater — mater, matris = mother
• vinum — vinum, vini = wine
• omnino = entirely, altogether, at all
• non = not
• bibit comes from bibo, bibere, bibi = drink

Learners often look up nouns by their nominative and genitive forms, and verbs by their principal parts.

Yes.

Compare:

• non bibit = she does not drink
• omnino non bibit = she does not drink at all

So the full sentence gives stronger emphasis to the idea that the mother does not drink wine.

Yes.

Because Latin has no articles, vinum can mean:

• wine in a general sense
• some wine
• the wine

In many beginner sentences like this one, it is often best understood as wine generally.

So the sentence can naturally mean that the mother does not drink wine at all, rather than referring to one particular cup or bottle.