Meridies venit, et discipuli prandium breve sumunt.

Meridies is the subject of the first clause, so it is in the nominative singular.

• meridies = midday, noon
• It is a fifth-declension noun.
• In this sentence, meridies venit means literally midday comes.

So Latin is treating midday as the thing doing the action of coming.

Venit is third person singular present active indicative of venio, meaning come.

So:

• venit = he/she/it comes

Since the subject is meridies (midday/noon), the sense is midday comes or more naturally noon arrives.

A learner may notice that venit can also sometimes mean came in certain contexts, because the same form can be either present or perfect in some verbs. But with venio, the perfect is normally vēnit with a long e. In ordinary classroom Latin, this sentence is understood as present tense: comes / arrives.

Latin often uses expressions that are a little different from normal English phrasing. Meridies venit is a natural Latin way to express the idea that noon has arrived.

English often prefers:

• It is noon
• Noon has come

Latin here uses the second kind of idea: midday comes.

So this is not strange in Latin; it is just a different idiom from the most common English one.

Discipuli is nominative plural of discipulus, meaning student or pupil.

It is nominative plural because it is the subject of sumunt.

So:

• discipulus = student (singular)
• discipuli = students (plural)

Because the subject is plural, the verb is plural too: sumunt = they take / have.

Prandium breve is the direct object of sumunt, so both words are in the accusative singular.

• prandium is a neuter noun meaning breakfast in some contexts, but more commonly lunch or midday meal
• breve is the accusative singular neuter form of brevis, meaning short or brief

The adjective must agree with the noun in:

• gender
• number
• case

So:

• prandium = accusative singular neuter
• breve = accusative singular neuter

That is why it is breve, not brevis.

Yes, sumunt literally comes from sumo, which often means take. But like many common verbs, it can be used idiomatically.

In Latin, meals are often expressed with verbs like sumo:

• cibum sumere = to take food
• prandium sumere = to have lunch / eat lunch

So while the literal sense is take, the natural English meaning here is have or eat.

This is similar to how English says have lunch, not literally possess lunch.

Sumunt is third person plural present active indicative of sumo.

So:

• sumunt = they take
• in this context, they have / eat

It is plural because the subject discipuli is plural.

You can match them like this:

• discipuli = the students
• sumunt = take / have

Together: the students have a brief lunch.

Yes, it could come before. Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

So both of these are possible:

• prandium breve
• breve prandium

Both mean a brief lunch.

The difference is usually one of style, emphasis, or rhythm, not basic grammar. In this sentence, prandium breve is a perfectly normal order.

Et simply means and. It joins the two clauses:

• Meridies venit
• discipuli prandium breve sumunt

So the full sentence is made of two coordinated statements:

• Midday comes
• and the students have a brief lunch

Latin often uses et exactly the way English uses and.

Yes. Latin does not rely on word order as much as English does, because the endings show the grammatical roles.

In this sentence:

• Meridies is nominative, so it is the subject of venit
• discipuli is nominative plural, so it is the subject of sumunt
• prandium breve is accusative singular, so it is the object

That means Latin could rearrange the words more freely and still keep the same basic meaning. For example, something like Discipuli prandium breve sumunt, et meridies venit would still be understandable, though the emphasis would be different.

So for a learner, the key point is: in Latin, endings matter more than position.