Malus altus ventum capit, et velum magnum supra navem movetur.

Malus is the noun: mast.
Altus is the adjective: tall or high.

You can tell they go together because they match in:

• gender: masculine
• number: singular
• case: nominative

In Latin, adjectives agree with the nouns they describe. So malus altus means the tall mast.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order. An adjective can come before or after its noun. So:

• malus altus
• altus malus

can both mean the tall mast.

Often the choice is just stylistic, though word order can sometimes add emphasis.

Because ventum is the direct object of capit.

• ventus = wind as the subject
• ventum = wind as the object

The verb capit means catches, takes, or seizes, so it needs something being caught. That thing is ventum.

So:

• malus altus = the subject
• ventum = the object

Literally, capit comes from capere, meaning to take, to seize, to catch.

In this sentence, the mast catches the wind is the most natural meaning. It does not mean the mast is grabbing the wind like a hand; it means the mast receives or takes the force of the wind.

So capit here is a normal Latin verb used in a practical, physical sense.

Because capit is third person singular present active.

That means:

• third person = he/she/it
• singular = one subject
• present = happening now

Since the subject is malus altus (the tall mast), English uses catches:

• the mast catches

not

• the mast catch

Because it is the subject of the second verb, movetur.

The sentence has two parts joined by et:

1. Malus altus ventum capit
2. et velum magnum supra navem movetur

In the second part:

• velum = sail
• magnum = big
• movetur = is moved / moves

So velum magnum is the thing doing or receiving the action of that second verb, and therefore it is nominative singular.

Because movetur is a passive verb form.

It comes from movere = to move.
The ending -tur shows third person singular passive in the present tense.

So:

• movet = moves / moves something
• movetur = is moved

That is why velum magnum movetur means the big sail is moved.

Depending on context, sometimes passive Latin can sound more natural in English as moves, but grammatically movetur is passive.

Sometimes, yes, depending on context and how natural the English sounds. Latin passive forms can occasionally describe something moving under an outside force, where English might simply say moves.

But grammatically, the form is still passive. So the safest first understanding is:

• movetur = is moved

In this sentence, that works well because the sail is being acted on by the wind.

Because supra here takes the accusative case when it means above or over in a spatial sense.

So:

• navis = ship, nominative
• navem = ship, accusative

Thus:

• supra navem = above the ship / over the ship

This is a common thing to memorize with prepositions in Latin: many prepositions regularly take a specific case.

It tells you where the sail is being moved:

• velum magnum supra navem movetur
• the big sail is moved above the ship

So supra navem is a prepositional phrase giving location or position relative to the ship.

Classical Latin has no definite article like English the and no indefinite article like a/an.

So:

• malus can mean mast, a mast, or the mast
• velum can mean sail, a sail, or the sail

You decide from context which English article sounds best. In this sentence, English naturally uses the:

• the tall mast
• the big sail
• the ship

The conjunction et means and, and it joins two clauses:

1. Malus altus ventum capit
2. velum magnum supra navem movetur

Each clause has its own verb:

• capit
• movetur

That makes it easier to divide the sentence into two parts.

Latin could rearrange it quite a lot and still keep the same basic meaning, because the endings show the grammatical roles.

For example, Latin could say things like:

• Ventum malus altus capit
• Velum magnum movetur supra navem
• Supra navem velum magnum movetur

The exact order may change emphasis or style, but the case endings still show:

• malus and velum are subjects
• ventum is an object
• navem follows supra

So Latin relies less on word order than English does.

Because it agrees with velum, which is:

• neuter
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective must also be neuter singular nominative:

• velum magnum = big sail

Compare:

• masculine nominative singular: magnus
• feminine nominative singular: magna
• neuter nominative singular: magnum

Yes. Velum is a second-declension neuter noun.

A common clue is the dictionary form ending in -um. Neuter second-declension nouns typically have:

• nominative singular in -um
• accusative singular also in -um

So velum is both nominative singular and accusative singular. In this sentence it is nominative because it is the subject of movetur.

Because the accusative in Latin is used not only for direct objects, but also after many prepositions.

Here, supra governs the accusative:

• supra navem

So navem is accusative because it is the object of the preposition supra, not because it is the direct object of movetur.

A learner would usually want these:

• malus, -i = mast
• altus, -a, -um = high, tall
• ventus, -i = wind
• capio, capere, cepi, captum = take, catch
• et = and
• velum, -i = sail
• magnus, -a, -um = big, great
• supra = above, over
• navis, navis = ship
• moveo, movere, movi, motum = move

Learning the dictionary form helps you recognize why the words appear in these sentence forms:

• ventum from ventus
• navem from navis
• capit from capere
• movetur from movere

A useful method is:

1. Find the verbs:

   • capit
   • movetur

2. Find the subjects:

   • malus altus
   • velum magnum

3. Find the object:

   • ventum

4. Find any prepositional phrase:

   • supra navem

Then build the meaning:

• The tall mast catches the wind
• and the big sail is moved above the ship

This approach helps because Latin often uses endings more than word order.