Serva pallium umidum de sella detrahit et sub tecto suspendit.

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

• serva = the slave woman / maidservant
• It is a first-declension noun.
• Its ending -a here shows nominative singular.

So serva detrahit ... et suspendit means the maidservant removes ... and hangs ...

Pallium is the direct object of the verb detrahit, so it appears in the accusative singular.

• pallium is a neuter second-declension noun.
• Nominative singular and accusative singular are both pallium for this type of noun.

It is the thing being acted on: the maidservant is removing the cloak/garment.

Because umidum agrees with pallium.

Latin adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• pallium is neuter singular accusative
• so umidum must also be neuter singular accusative

That is why Latin uses pallium umidum for the wet cloak.

Because the preposition de takes the ablative case.

So:

• de = down from / off / from
• sella = ablative singular of sella

Together, de sella means from the chair or off the chair.

This phrase tells you the place from which the cloak is being removed.

Detrahit is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

from the verb detrahere.

So it means he/she removes, pulls down, takes off.
Because the subject is serva, the natural translation is she removes.

Suspendit is also:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

from suspendere.

So it means he/she hangs up or suspends.
With serva as the subject, it means she hangs up.

Because Latin often leaves out a word when it is easily understood from the context.

The object of suspendit is still pallium umidum, even though it is not repeated.

So the sentence works like this:

• Serva pallium umidum de sella detrahit
• et (pallium umidum) sub tecto suspendit

In English we often do the same thing:
The maid removes the wet cloak from the chair and hangs it under the roof.

Because sub can take either the ablative or the accusative, depending on the meaning.

• sub + ablative = location, meaning under/beneath
• sub + accusative = motion toward a position under something

Here the sentence describes where the cloak ends up hanging, so sub tecto uses the ablative.

So:

• sub tecto = under the roof
• sub tectum would more strongly suggest movement to a position under the roof

Tecto is the ablative singular of tectum, a neuter second-declension noun.

Its basic meaning is roof, and by extension it can also mean house, building, or shelter in some contexts.

Here, because it follows sub in a location sense, it is ablative:

• tectum = nominative/accusative singular
• tecto = ablative singular

So sub tecto means under the roof.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show grammatical function.

English depends heavily on position:

• The maid removes the cloak

If you rearrange that in English, the meaning can become unclear.

In Latin, endings already show:

• serva = subject
• pallium umidum = object
• sella / tecto after prepositions = ablative phrases

So Latin can place words in an order that sounds natural or emphasizes certain ideas.
This sentence is actually fairly straightforward, but it still does not have to match normal English order exactly.

Because Latin adjectives can come before or after the noun they modify.

Both positions are common. Latin word order often depends on style, emphasis, and rhythm rather than a fixed rule.

So:

• pallium umidum
• umidum pallium

can both mean the wet cloak.

In this sentence, pallium umidum is simply a normal and natural order.

Classical Latin has no articles.

That means Latin does not normally have separate words for:

• the
• a / an

So serva can mean:

• a maidservant
• the maidservant

and pallium can mean:

• a cloak
• the cloak

You decide from the context which English article sounds right.

Et simply means and.

It joins the two verbs:

• detrahit
• suspendit

Both actions have the same subject, serva:

• she removes the wet cloak from the chair
• and hangs it under the roof

So et connects two actions done by the same person.

De is a very natural choice here because it often means down from, off, or from a surface or position.

With a verb like detrahere, de is especially common:

• de sella detrahit = she pulls it down/off from the chair

A learner might wonder about ex or ab, but those usually express different kinds of from:

• ex = out of, from inside
• ab = away from, from beside
• de = down from, off from

So de sella fits the image best.