Modestia puellae magistram laetam facit, et ea in schola cito laudem accipit.

Puellae is most naturally genitive singular here, so it means of the girl.

So:

• modestia = modesty
• puellae = of the girl

Together, modestia puellae means the girl's modesty or the modesty of the girl.

A beginner might notice that puellae can also be dative singular, but in this sentence the sense is clearly genitive: the modesty belongs to or is associated with the girl.

Because modestia is in the nominative singular, which is the normal case for the subject.

Here is the basic structure:

• modestia = subject, modesty
• facit = makes
• magistram laetam = the teacher happy

So the sentence means that the girl's modesty is what makes the teacher happy.

Latin does not depend mainly on word order to show subject and object; it depends on case endings.

Magistram is the direct object of facit.

In English, we say:

• The girl's modesty makes the teacher happy.

Here, the teacher is the person being affected by the action of makes, so Latin puts magistra into the accusative:

• magistra → nominative, teacher
• magistram → accusative, teacher as direct object

So magistram means the teacher as the person whom the modesty makes happy.

Because laetam goes with magistram.

In Latin, after verbs like facere (to make), you often get:

• a direct object
• plus a word describing what that object is made to be

So:

• magistram = the teacher
• laetam = happy

Both are feminine singular accusative, because laetam agrees with magistram.

So magistram laetam facit literally means makes the teacher happy.

This is sometimes called a predicate accusative or object complement.

Here facit means makes in the sense of causes to be.

So it does not just mean does in a vague sense. In this sentence:

• magistram laetam facit = makes the teacher happy

That is a very common use of facere in Latin.

Ea is the nominative feminine singular form of is, ea, id.

Here it means she.

So in the second clause:

• et ea in schola cito laudem accipit
• and she quickly receives praise at school

It is a pronoun referring back to a feminine noun already mentioned.

Grammatically, ea could refer to either feminine singular noun already mentioned:

• puella
• magistra

But in normal classroom reading, it is usually understood to refer to the girl, because she is the one whose modesty is being discussed, and it makes good sense that she receives praise.

So the intended meaning is usually:

• The girl's modesty makes the teacher happy, and she receives praise at school.

Still, this is a good example of how Latin pronouns can sometimes be a little ambiguous unless the context makes the reference clear.

Because in takes the ablative when it means in or at a place where someone is located.

So:

• in schola = in school or at school

If there were motion into a place, Latin would usually use in with the accusative instead.

Compare:

• in schola = in/at school
• in scholam = into school

Because laudem is the direct object of accipit.

The verb accipit means receives, and the thing received goes in the accusative.

So:

• laudem accipit = receives praise

Also, laus (praise) is a third-declension noun:

• nominative singular: laus
• accusative singular: laudem

Cito is an adverb, meaning quickly.

It modifies the verb accipit:

• cito accipit = quickly receives

So it tells us how she receives praise.

This is different from an adjective, which would describe a noun. Cito does not describe a noun here; it describes the action.

Both are present tense, third person singular, active voice.

So:

• facit = he/she/it makes
• accipit = he/she/it receives

In this sentence:

• modestia is the subject of facit
• ea is the subject of accipit

So the sentence is describing what is happening in the present, or stating a general fact.

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

So Latin simply says:

• puellae
• magistram
• laudem

And English has to supply the or a from context.

That is why a single Latin phrase can sometimes be translated in more than one way, for example:

• magistram = the teacher or a teacher

In this sentence, the context makes the teacher the most natural translation.

The word order matters for emphasis and style, but the grammar is shown mainly by the endings.

Latin can be more flexible than English because the cases tell you what each word is doing.

For example, in this sentence:

• modestia is still the subject because it is nominative
• magistram is still the object because it is accusative
• laetam still agrees with magistram

So the order chosen here is natural Latin, but the endings are what really tell you the structure.

A very literal translation would be:

• makes the teacher happy

Or even more mechanically:

• makes the teacher happy
• makes the teacher a happy one

But the natural English translation is simply:

• makes the teacher happy

This is a place where Latin and English are actually quite close in structure.