Mater dicit stultitiam saepe venire, cum nimis festinamus.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because Latin shows grammatical function mainly through endings, not position.

So in:

Mater dicit stultitiam saepe venire, cum nimis festinamus.

you can identify the parts by form:

• Mater = mother; nominative singular, the subject of dicit
• dicit = says
• stultitiam = accusative singular
• saepe = often
• venire = to come
• cum = when
• nimis = too much / too greatly
• festinamus = we hurry

A more English-like order would be something like:

Mater dicit stultitiam saepe venire, cum nimis festinamus
= Mother says that stupidity often comes when we hurry too much.

Latin can move words around for emphasis or style without changing the basic meaning.

This is one of the most important features of Latin syntax: after a verb like dicit (says), Latin often uses an indirect statement construction.

Instead of saying:

• Mother says that stupidity comes

Latin says, more literally:

• Mother says stupidity to come

In this construction:

• the subject of the reported statement goes into the accusative
• the verb of the reported statement goes into the infinitive

So:

• stultitia venit = stupidity comes
  but
• mater dicit stultitiam venire = mother says that stupidity comes

That is why stultitiam is accusative.

For the same reason: Latin indirect statement uses the infinitive.

Compare:

• stultitia venit = stupidity comes
• mater dicit stultitiam venire = mother says that stupidity comes

So after dicit, Latin does not normally put a finite verb like venit for the reported statement. It uses:

• accusative subject: stultitiam
• infinitive verb: venire

This is often called the accusative-and-infinitive construction.

Yes, from an English point of view, you can think of an implied that.

Latin:

• Mater dicit stultitiam saepe venire

English:

• Mother says that stupidity often comes

But Latin does not normally use a separate word equivalent to English that in this kind of sentence. Instead, it signals the reported clause by the accusative + infinitive pattern.

So the idea of that is there in meaning, even though no single Latin word translates it here.

Yes. Stultitia means foolishness, stupidity, or folly.

In this sentence it is being used as an abstract noun, so the sense is something like:

• stupidity often comes
• foolishness often appears
• we often do foolish things

English may phrase this idea in different ways, but the Latin noun itself really is stultitia = stupidity / folly.

Here cum means when.

So:

• cum nimis festinamus = when we hurry too much

This is a temporal clause. It tells when stupidity often comes.

Because this cum clause is a straightforward time clause: when we hurry too much.

Latin uses cum + indicative when the meaning is simply temporal and fairly direct.

So:

• cum festinamus = when we hurry

By contrast, cum + subjunctive is very common when cum means things like:

• since
• although
• or when it gives background circumstances in a more literary way

In this sentence, the plain indicative festinamus fits the simple temporal idea very naturally.

In Latin, the personal ending on the verb already tells you the subject.

• festino = I hurry
• festinas = you hurry
• festinat = he/she/it hurries
• festinamus = we hurry

So the -mus ending already means we. Latin does not need to add nos unless it wants emphasis.

Therefore:

• festinamus = we hurry

not just hurry in a vague sense.

Nimis is an adverb meaning too much, too greatly, or excessively.

It modifies festinamus:

• festinamus = we hurry
• nimis festinamus = we hurry too much

So it gives the idea of excess: not just hurrying, but hurrying more than is wise.

Saepe means often.

It modifies venire:

• stultitiam saepe venire = stupidity often to come
• in natural English: stupidity often comes

Its position is flexible because Latin adverbs can often move around more freely than in English. Here it sits between stultitiam and venire, but its meaning is still clear.

Grammatically, yes. Latin has no definite or indefinite article, so mater can mean:

• mother
• the mother
• a mother

You decide from context.

In many learning examples, mater is understood as mother in a familiar sense, but the form itself does not force that interpretation.

Latin often leaves possessive words unstated when they are obvious from context.

So mater by itself can mean:

• mother
• my mother
• our mother

depending on who is speaking and the situation.

Latin does have possessives like mea (my) and nostra (our), but it does not have to use them unless the speaker wants to make the ownership explicit or emphatic.

Yes, roughly like this:

• Mater = Mother
• dicit = says
• stultitiam = stupidity
• saepe = often
• venire = to come
• cum = when
• nimis = too much
• festinamus = we hurry

So a very literal version would be:

Mother says stupidity often to come, when we hurry too much.

That is not good English, but it helps show the Latin structure. A natural English translation is:

Mother says that stupidity often comes when we hurry too much.

The main verb is dicit = says.

Everything else depends on that:

• stultitiam saepe venire = what mother says
• cum nimis festinamus = when this happens

So the overall structure is:

• Main clause: Mater dicit
• Indirect statement: stultitiam saepe venire
• Time clause: cum nimis festinamus

Not if the sentence is keeping this same structure.

If you say:

• stultitia venit = stupidity comes

then stultitia is nominative because it is the subject of a normal finite verb.

But after mater dicit, Latin changes the reported statement into indirect statement:

• stultitiam venire

So stultitiam is required there.

If you changed it to stultitia, the grammar would no longer match the standard Latin construction.

Yes, that is a very natural way to understand it.

The present tense here is not just about one specific moment. It expresses a general idea:

• stupidity often comes when we hurry too much

That is much like an English proverb or general observation. Latin commonly uses the present tense this way.