Mater et pater inter se dissentiunt utrum puella domi maneat an ad scholam veniat.

Because the subject is mater et pater = mother and father.

Two singular nouns joined by et usually make a plural subject, so the verb must also be plural:

• mater = mother
• pater = father
• mater et pater = mother and father
• dissentiunt = they disagree

So Latin is doing exactly what English does in mother and father disagree.

Inter se means with one another, among themselves, or with each other.

So:

• mater et pater inter se dissentiunt = the mother and father disagree with each other

This is a very common Latin expression:

• inter = among, between
• se = themselves / each other

Together, it often gives the idea of mutual action between the people involved.

Utrum ... an ... is a standard way to introduce an indirect question with two alternatives:

• utrum = whether
• an = or

So:

• utrum puella domi maneat an ad scholam veniat
• whether the girl stays at home or comes to school

A learner should notice that this is not just a simple or sentence. It is specifically an either/or question embedded inside another sentence.

After a verb like dissentiunt, Latin can express what the disagreement is about by using this kind of indirect question.

They are subjunctive because they are in an indirect question.

In Latin, indirect questions regularly take the subjunctive. That is why we get:

• maneat rather than manet
• veniat rather than venit

So the pattern is:

• direct question: Utrum puella domi manet an ad scholam venit?
• indirect question: ... utrum puella domi maneat an ad scholam veniat

Even though English often does not show a special verb form here, Latin does.

Because puella is the subject of both maneat and veniat.

The girl is the one who might:

• stay at home
• come to school

So she must be in the nominative case:

• puella = the girl

Even though the clause depends on dissentiunt, the subordinate clause still has its own subject, and that subject is nominative.

Domi means at home.

It is a special form called the locative, used with a small group of words, especially words for places like domus.

So:

• domi = at home

Latin could sometimes use other expressions for place, but domi is the normal idiomatic way to say at home.

This is worth memorizing as a fixed expression.

Because ad with the accusative shows movement toward a place.

So:

• ad scholam = to school

Since scholam follows ad, it is accusative singular.

Compare the ideas:

• domi maneat = stay at home, remain in place
• ad scholam veniat = come to school, move toward school

Latin is clearly contrasting staying with going/coming.

Scholam is accusative singular.

That is because it follows the preposition ad, and ad takes the accusative when it means to or toward.

So:

• schola = school
• ad scholam = to school

This is a very common prepositional pattern in Latin.

Latin venire basically means to come, but in some contexts English prefers go where Latin uses come.

So ad scholam veniat is literally come to school, but depending on context an English translation might naturally say:

• go to school
• come to school

The Latin is not strange; it is just choosing the verb from a different point of view than English sometimes does.

Not exactly.

All of them can introduce questions, but utrum is especially useful when there are two alternatives, especially with an:

• utrum ... an ... = whether ... or ...

By contrast:

• -ne often introduces a simple yes/no question
• num often suggests that the expected answer is no

Here Latin wants a clear whether X or Y structure, so utrum ... an ... is the natural choice.

Yes, that is the basic idea.

Latin often lets a verb like dissentiunt be followed directly by an indirect question showing the point at issue.

So the sentence means something like:

• Mother and father disagree with each other about whether the girl should stay at home or come to school.

In smoother English, we often add about or over, but Latin does not need a separate word there.

Latin word order is more flexible because the endings show each word’s role in the sentence.

Here the order is:

• Mater et pater
• inter se
• dissentiunt
• utrum puella domi maneat an ad scholam veniat

This is perfectly natural Latin. A few things to notice:

• the main idea mater et pater ... dissentiunt comes first
• inter se is placed near dissentiunt
• the indirect question comes after the main verb

English depends more on word order, while Latin depends more on inflection.

Yes, sometimes that is a good way to bring out the sense.

Because they are subjunctive in an indirect question, English may translate them simply as:

• whether the girl stays at home or comes to school

But depending on context, you might also see:

• whether the girl should stay at home or come to school

That does not mean the Latin is a purpose clause or command here. It is still an indirect question. English just sometimes uses should to make the meaning sound more natural.

They are:

• mater, matris = mother
• pater, patris = father
• inter = between, among
• se = himself/herself/itself/themselves; each other
• dissentio, dissentire, dissensi, dissensum = disagree
• utrum = whether
• puella, puellae = girl
• domus, domus = house, home
• maneo, manere, mansi, mansum = remain, stay
• an = or
• ad = to, toward
• schola, scholae = school
• venio, venire, veni, ventum = come

Knowing these forms helps explain the grammar of the sentence, especially domi, dissentiunt, maneat, and veniat.