Timor puerum impedit quominus ante iudicem loquatur, sed mater ei adest.

The sentence has two main clauses:

• Timor puerum impedit quominus ante iudicem loquatur
• sed mater ei adest

In the first clause:

• Timor = the subject
• impedit = the main verb
• puerum = the direct object
• quominus ante iudicem loquatur = a subordinate clause explaining what the fear prevents

In the second clause:

• mater = the subject
• adest = the verb
• ei = the person she is present for / helping

Because puerum is the direct object of impedit.

The verb impedire means to hinder, obstruct, prevent. In Latin, the person or thing being hindered is often put in the accusative:

• timor puerum impedit = fear hinders the boy

So the structure is:

• Timor = fear
• puerum = the boy
• impedit = hinders / prevents

Quominus is a conjunction commonly used after verbs of hindering, preventing, refusing, doubting, and similar ideas.

Here it means something like:

• from
• from doing something
• that ... not, depending on how you want to analyze it

So:

• impedit quominus loquatur = prevents him from speaking

A very literal sense would be something like hinders [him] whereby he speaks less / so that he does not speak, but the natural English is simply prevents ... from speaking.

This is a standard Latin construction.

Because quominus normally introduces a subjunctive clause.

After a verb like impedit, Latin uses:

• quominus + subjunctive

So:

• impedit quominus ... loquatur

The subjunctive here is required by the construction, not because the action is especially doubtful or hypothetical in English.

No. Loquatur looks passive, but it is actually from a deponent verb.

The verb is:

• loquor, loqui, locutus sum = to speak

Deponent verbs have passive forms but active meanings.

So:

• loquatur = he may speak / he speak not
• he is spoken

In this sentence, it means speak.

Because the clause after quominus needs the present subjunctive, not the indicative or future.

Compare:

• loquitur = he speaks (present indicative)
• loquetur = he will speak (future indicative)
• loquatur = he speak / may speak (present subjunctive)

Since quominus calls for the subjunctive, loquatur is the correct form.

Ante is a preposition that takes the accusative, and iudicem is the accusative singular of iudex.

So:

• ante
  • accusative
• ante iudicem = before the judge / in front of the judge

This is a normal use of ante.

Because adest takes the dative of the person to whom someone is present, near, or supportive.

The verb is:

• adsum, adesse = to be present, to be at hand, to help, to stand by

With this verb:

• ei adest = she is present for him / she stands by him / she helps him

So ei is dative singular: to him / for him.

Literally, adest means is present or is near.

But in many contexts it also has the sense:

• is there for
• stands by
• supports
• helps

So mater ei adest does not just mean that the mother happens to be physically nearby. It suggests that she is present in support of him.

It refers to puerum.

So the idea is:

• fear prevents the boy from speaking before the judge,
• but the mother is present for him / stands by him.

This is very common in Latin: a pronoun in a later clause refers back to a noun from an earlier clause.

Latin often expresses an idea in more than one way.

Here the sentence is built around fear as the thing doing the preventing:

• Timor puerum impedit = Fear prevents the boy

Latin could also express the general idea differently, but this sentence chooses to make timor the grammatical subject. That gives the sentence a slightly more impersonal or abstract feel: the obstacle is fear itself.

Sed means but and marks a contrast.

So the sentence sets up two opposing ideas:

• Timor ... impedit = fear is an obstacle
• sed mater ei adest = but his mother is there to support him

This contrast is important to the overall sense of the sentence.

It is normal Latin word order, which is more flexible than English word order.

Latin can move words around for emphasis and style. Here:

• Timor comes first, giving emphasis to fear
• puerum appears before impedit
• the quominus clause comes after the verb it depends on
• sed mater starts the contrasting second clause

A very literal rearrangement into a more English-like order would be:

• Timor impedit puerum quominus ante iudicem loquatur, sed mater adest ei

But the original order is more natural and elegant in Latin.

Sometimes Latin uses different constructions after verbs of preventing, but with impedire a very common and classic construction is:

• impedire aliquem quominus + subjunctive

So in this sentence, quominus loquatur is exactly what you would expect.

For a learner, it is best to treat this as a standard pattern:

• impedio + accusative person + quominus + subjunctive

The key verbs are:

• impedio, impedire, impedivi, impeditum = hinder, prevent
• loquor, loqui, locutus sum = speak
  
  • this one is deponent
• adsum, adesse, affui = be present, be near, help

Knowing these principal parts helps you recognize the forms:

• impedit from impedio
• loquatur from loquor
• adest from adsum

A very useful way to see it is:

• subject
  • person hindered
    • verb of hindering
      • quominus + subjunctive

So here:

• Timor = subject
• puerum = person hindered
• impedit = verb of hindering
• quominus ante iudicem loquatur = what he is prevented from doing

That pattern is worth memorizing, because you will meet it again in Latin.