Pater nescit quid faciat, quia infans flere incipit et mater abest.

Because quid faciat is an indirect question: Pater nescit quid faciat = The father does not know what he should do / what he is to do.

In Latin, indirect questions normally take the subjunctive, even when English does not show anything special. So:

• direct question: Quid facit? = What is he doing?
• indirect question: Nescit quid faciat = He does not know what he should do / what he is doing

Here faciat is present subjunctive, 3rd person singular, from facere.

Quid means what and introduces the indirect question.

It is the neuter singular form of the interrogative pronoun quis, quid. In this sentence, it is the object of faciat:

• faciat = he may do / he should do
• quid faciat = what he should do

A learner might wonder why it is not quod. Here the sentence needs an interrogative word, not a relative pronoun, so Latin uses quid.

All three are nominative singular, because each is the subject of its own verb:

• pater → subject of nescit
• infans → subject of incipit
• mater → subject of abest

So the structure is:

• Pater nescit = The father does not know
• infans flere incipit = the baby begins to cry
• mater abest = the mother is away / absent

Because incipio often takes an infinitive to express begin to ....

So:

• incipit = begins
• flere = to cry

Together, flere incipit means begins to cry.

This is very normal Latin. English uses to cry; Latin uses the infinitive flere without needing any extra word.

Flere is the present active infinitive of fleo, meaning to cry or to weep.

So if you parse it:

• dictionary form: fleo, flere
• tense/aspect of infinitive: present
• voice: active
• meaning here: to cry

After incipit, the present infinitive is exactly what you would expect.

Abest means is away, is absent, or is not here.

It comes from absum, which is a compound of:

• ab- = away from
• sum = I am

So:

• absum = I am away / I am absent
• abest = he/she/it is away / absent

In this sentence, mater abest means the mother is away.

Yes. Latin word order is more flexible than English word order, because the grammar is shown largely by endings rather than position.

This sentence is fairly straightforward:

• Pater nescit
• quid faciat
• quia infans flere incipit
• et mater abest

That said, Latin could move words around for emphasis. For example, mater abest could become abest mater if the writer wanted to emphasize the absence.

Even with freer word order, the endings still show who is doing what.

Quia means because and introduces the reason:

• Pater nescit quid faciat
• quia infans flere incipit et mater abest

So the father does not know what to do because the baby is beginning to cry and the mother is away.

A learner may notice that Latin has more than one way to express because. Quia is one common and straightforward choice.

All the finite verbs are in the present tense, except that faciat is specifically present subjunctive:

• nescit = present indicative, he does not know
• faciat = present subjunctive, he should do / may do in an indirect question
• incipit = present indicative, begins
• abest = present indicative, is away / is absent

And flere is not a finite verb at all; it is the present infinitive.

Because Latin infinitives already include that idea in a single word.

In English:

• to cry

In Latin:

• flere

So flere by itself means to cry. Latin does not need a separate word corresponding to English to before an infinitive.

In this sentence, what he should do or what to do is usually better.

Because the context is Pater nescit quid faciat, the idea is not mainly he does not know what action he is currently performing, but rather he does not know what action to take.

So the Latin is naturally understood as something like:

• The father does not know what to do
• The father does not know what he should do

That sense comes from the combination of:

• nescit = does not know
• indirect question
• subjunctive faciat