Sacerdos hostiam ad aram ducit, serva autem tus iterum in ignem ponit.

Because hostiam is the direct object of ducit.

• hostia = the sacrificial victim
• hostiam = the sacrificial victim as the thing being led

Latin shows the job of a noun by its case ending. Here, the priest is leading the victim, so hostia has to be in the accusative singular, which is hostiam.

Because ad means to or toward, and it regularly takes the accusative case.

So:

• ad = to, toward
• aram = altar (accusative singular of ara)

Together, ad aram means to the altar.

Latin often uses a preposition where English does, but sometimes the case ending and the preposition work together very tightly. Here, ad tells you the direction, and aram is in the accusative because ad requires it.

Autem usually means however, but, or on the other hand.

In this sentence it links the two parts:

• Sacerdos hostiam ad aram ducit
• serva autem tus iterum in ignem ponit

So the sense is something like:

• The priest leads the victim to the altar, but meanwhile the slave-girl puts incense on the fire again.

A useful thing to notice is that autem often comes after the first word of its clause, not right at the beginning. So Latin prefers:

• serva autem ...

rather than putting autem first.

Here serva is a noun, meaning female slave or maidservant, and it is the subject of ponit.

So:

• serva ... ponit = the slave-girl puts ...

A beginner might hesitate because serva can look like the imperative of servare (save!), but in this sentence that would not fit the grammar or meaning. Here it clearly functions as a noun parallel to sacerdos in the first clause.

Tus is in fact the direct object of ponit, so it is accusative here. The reason it looks unchanged is that tus is a neuter noun, and its nominative and accusative singular forms are the same.

So:

• nominative singular: tus
• accusative singular: tus

This is very common with neuter nouns in Latin: the nominative and accusative are identical.

Because Latin uses in + accusative for motion into something, but in + ablative for location in something.

Here the incense is being placed into the fire, so Latin uses:

• in ignem = into the fire

Compare:

• in igne = in the fire, in the fire as a location

So the difference is:

• in ignem ponit = she places it into the fire
• in igne est = it is in the fire

Iterum means again or a second time.

It modifies the verb ponit:

• tus iterum in ignem ponit = puts incense on/into the fire again

Latin adverbs like iterum are often placed fairly freely, so its position may not match English exactly. What matters is that it tells you how often the action happens.

Because Latin word order is more flexible than English word order.

English depends heavily on position:

• The priest leads the victim

If you rearrange that in English, the meaning can become unclear or change.

Latin, however, uses endings to show what each word is doing:

• sacerdos = subject
• hostiam = direct object
• aram / ignem after prepositions = objects of those prepositions

That means Latin can move words around for style, emphasis, or rhythm without losing clarity.

This sentence is actually fairly straightforward, but even here the order is not as rigidly English-like as:

• subject + verb + object + prepositional phrase

Because sacerdos is simply the dictionary form of the noun meaning priest or priestess, depending on context.

It belongs to the third declension, where noun endings are more varied than in the first or second declensions. So you should not expect all subjects to end in -a or -us.

In this sentence:

• sacerdos is the subject of ducit

Its form here is nominative singular.

Yes. Both are third person singular present active indicative:

• ducit = he/she leads
• ponit = he/she puts / places

Since the subjects are singular:

• sacerdos ... ducit = the priest leads
• serva ... ponit = the slave-girl puts

Latin often uses the present tense in straightforward narrative description just as English does.

Yes: the sentence is built as two parallel main clauses joined by autem.

1. Sacerdos hostiam ad aram ducit
2. serva autem tus iterum in ignem ponit

Each clause has:

• a subject
• a verb
• something affected by the verb
• a phrase showing direction or destination

That parallel structure helps the sentence feel balanced:

• the priest does one ritual action
• the slave-girl does another

This kind of matching structure is very common in simple Latin narrative and is useful for beginners to recognize.