Lucia et amica eius versus veteres conferunt, ut melius intellegant quid auctor sentiat.

Eius is the genitive singular of is, ea, id, and here it means of her or simply her.

Latin normally uses suus, sua, suum for a reflexive possessive, meaning the possession belongs to the subject of the clause. But here the full subject is Lucia and her friend together, not Lucia alone. So eius is used to show that the friend belongs to Lucia specifically.

So:

• amica eius = her friend
• amica sua would sound reflexive and could be misleading or ambiguous here

Because versus is a 4th-declension noun. Its accusative plural is also spelled versus (more exactly versūs with a long ū, if macrons are written).

So in this sentence:

• versus veteres = old verses
• it is the direct object of conferunt

This can be confusing to English speakers because it looks like a singular nominative form, but here it is actually accusative plural.

Veteres is accusative plural masculine, agreeing with versus.

Since versus is the direct object of conferunt, the adjective describing it must also be in the accusative plural:

• versus = verses
• veteres = old

So versus veteres means old verses.

Here conferunt means they compare.

It comes from conferre, which literally means to bring together, but in many contexts it means to compare. That is the natural meaning here: Lucia and her friend are comparing old verses.

It is also an irregular verb, because it is built from ferre (to carry, bear), so its forms do not follow the most regular conjugation patterns.

Because ut here introduces a purpose clause:

• ut
  • subjunctive = so that, in order that

So:

• ut melius intellegant = so that they may understand better / in order to understand better

This is a very common Latin pattern.

Because it is inside a purpose clause introduced by ut.

Latin uses the subjunctive in purpose clauses, where English often uses:

• so that
• in order that
• or simply an infinitive like to understand

So intellegant is not saying a plain fact; it shows the goal or purpose of their comparing the verses.

Melius is the comparative adverb meaning better.

It modifies intellegant:

• melius intellegant = understand better

This is related to:

• bene = well
• melius = better
• optime = best

So it is an adverb, not an adjective.

Because quid auctor sentiat is an indirect question.

In Latin, indirect questions normally use the subjunctive. So after intellegant, the clause quid auctor sentiat means:

• what the author thinks
• or in context, what the author means

So sentiat is subjunctive not because it is a purpose clause, but because it is part of an indirect question introduced by quid.

Quid means what and introduces the indirect question:

• quid auctor sentiat = what the author thinks / means

It is the thing they are trying to understand. In other words, they compare the old verses so that they can better understand what the author is thinking or meaning.

Because auctor is in the nominative singular, which is the normal case for the subject of a verb.

So in:

• quid auctor sentiat

the structure is:

• auctor = subject = the author
• sentiat = verb = thinks / means
• quid = what

That gives: what the author thinks.

It may feel unusual if you are used to English, but it is normal Latin. Latin word order is much more flexible because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

A rough structure is:

• Lucia et amica eius = subject
• versus veteres conferunt = main clause
• ut melius intellegant = purpose clause
• quid auctor sentiat = indirect question inside that clause

Latin often places important words in positions that sound natural or emphatic rather than following a fixed English-style order. So while you could rearrange parts of the sentence, the given order is perfectly idiomatic Latin.

Literally, sentire can mean to feel, to perceive, to think, or to hold an opinion. In literary contexts like this one, it often comes close to think or even mean.

So here quid auctor sentiat is best understood as:

• what the author thinks
• or more naturally in context, what the author means

That is why comparing the old verses helps them interpret the author’s meaning.