Avia nepoti fabulam de mari narrat.

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

• avia = grandmother
• nominative singular of avia, aviae

So avia ... narrat means the grandmother tells.

Nepoti is dative singular.

The dative case is often used for the indirect object: the person to whom something is given, said, shown, or told.

So here:

• nepoti = to the grandson / for the grandson

That is why the sentence means that the grandmother tells a story to her grandson.

Because fabulam is the direct object: it is the thing being told.

• fabula = story
• fabulam = accusative singular

With narrat (tells), Latin uses:

• the person told in the dative → nepoti
• the thing told in the accusative → fabulam

So literally: Grandmother tells a story to the grandson.

Because the preposition de takes the ablative case.

The noun is:

• mare, maris = sea

Its ablative singular is:

• mari

So:

• de mari = about the sea / concerning the sea

That is why mare changes to mari after de.

Here de means about or concerning.

So:

• fabulam de mari = a story about the sea

In other contexts, de can also mean things like from, down from, or concerning, but in this sentence about is the natural meaning.

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

So a noun like avia can mean:

• grandmother
• the grandmother
• sometimes even a grandmother

Likewise:

• fabulam can mean a story or the story

You figure out which English article sounds right from the context.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show each word’s job in the sentence.

Putting the verb at the end is very common in Latin, especially in straightforward prose.

So:

• Avia nepoti fabulam de mari narrat

is a perfectly natural Latin order.

English needs stricter word order, but Latin can move words around more freely without changing the basic meaning.

Yes, often they could.

For example, these would still basically mean the same thing:

• Avia nepoti fabulam de mari narrat
• Avia fabulam de mari nepoti narrat
• Fabulam avia nepoti de mari narrat

The endings still show:

• avia = subject
• nepoti = indirect object
• fabulam = direct object
• mari = ablative after de

However, changing the order can slightly change emphasis or style.

Narrat is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from narro, narrare, meaning to tell or to relate.

So narrat means:

• he tells
• she tells
• it tells

Here, since the subject is avia, it means she tells.

The verb form narrat by itself only means he/she/it tells. Latin verbs do not normally show gender.

We know it is she tells because the subject is avia, and avia means grandmother, which is feminine.

So the noun gives us the gender, not the verb ending.

You would usually look them up like this:

• avia, aviae — grandmother
• nepos, nepotis — grandson / nephew / descendant
• fabula, fabulae — story, tale
• mare, maris — sea
• narro, narrare, narravi, narratum — tell, relate

This is useful because Latin words often appear in a sentence in a changed form, but the dictionary gives you the base form.

Not always in every context. The noun nepos, nepotis can mean:

• grandson
• nephew
• more broadly, a descendant

But in a sentence with avia (grandmother), grandson is the most natural meaning.

So context helps choose the best English translation.

Because Latin uses cases, and each case has its own ending.

In this sentence, the endings show each noun’s role:

• avia = nominative singular → subject
• nepoti = dative singular → indirect object
• fabulam = accusative singular → direct object
• mari = ablative singular → object of de

English mostly uses word order and prepositions for this, but Latin often uses word endings instead.