Etiam si pluvia gravis cadit, cives ad templum veniunt.

Yes. Etiam si is a very common combination meaning even if.

• si = if
• etiam often means also / even

Together, they introduce a concessive idea: even if X happens, Y still happens.

So in this sentence:

• Etiam si pluvia gravis cadit, cives ad templum veniunt.
• Even if heavy rain is falling, the citizens come to the temple.

Yes. Gravis is an adjective modifying pluvia, so it must agree with it in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• pluvia = nominative singular feminine
• gravis = nominative singular feminine (same form as masculine in this adjective class)

So pluvia gravis means heavy rain.

Even though English often uses a noun like rain without an adjective, Latin can describe it directly with an adjective just like English does.

Both orders are possible in Latin.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because endings show the grammatical relationships. So:

• pluvia gravis
• gravis pluvia

can both mean heavy rain.

That said, noun + adjective is a very common and natural order in Latin, especially in simple prose. The version in your sentence sounds straightforward and unremarkable.

Pluvia is nominative singular, and it is the subject of cadit.

We know this because:

• cadit is third person singular
• the thing doing the action is pluvia = rain
• the form pluvia is nominative singular

So the clause works like this:

• pluvia gravis = the subject
• cadit = falls / is falling

Latin often uses cadere with rain, so literally this is something like heavy rain falls.

Because its subject, pluvia, is singular.

• pluvia = rain (singular)
• cadit = it falls / is falling

If the subject were plural, the verb would also be plural. Latin verbs must agree with their subjects in number (and person).

Both are in the present tense.

• cadit = falls / is falling
• veniunt = come / are coming

In Latin, the present tense can often be translated in more than one natural English way depending on context:

• cadit could be falls or is falling
• veniunt could be come or are coming

So the sentence can sound natural in English as either a general truth or an action happening now.

Here cives is nominative plural, and it is the subject of veniunt.

• civis = citizen
• cives = citizens

This form can also be accusative plural in other contexts, so beginners often wonder about it. In this sentence, though, it must be nominative plural because:

• veniunt is plural
• cives are the ones doing the action of coming

Ad takes the accusative case when it means to / toward a place.

So:

• ad = to, toward
• templum = accusative singular of templum

Together, ad templum means to the temple.

This is a very common pattern in Latin:

• ad urbem = to the city
• ad villam = to the house/farmhouse
• ad forum = to the forum

Yes, English might well say go to the temple, but Latin often uses venire in ways that English would sometimes translate as either come or go, depending on viewpoint.

Strictly speaking:

• venire = to come
• ire = to go

But when Latin presents movement toward a destination, venire can be perfectly natural. In many teaching sentences, it is translated as come because that is the direct meaning of the verb.

So cives ad templum veniunt literally means the citizens come to the temple, even if in idiomatic English another context might prefer go.

Because Latin has no articles.

There is no direct Latin word for:

• the
• a / an

So:

• cives can mean citizens or the citizens
• templum can mean a temple or the temple
• pluvia gravis can mean heavy rain or the heavy rain, depending on context

English has to choose an article when translating, but Latin usually leaves that to context.

Yes. Latin allows a lot of flexibility in word order.

For example, these would still be understandable Latin:

• Cives etiam si pluvia gravis cadit ad templum veniunt.
• Ad templum cives veniunt, etiam si pluvia gravis cadit.
• Etiam si gravis pluvia cadit, cives ad templum veniunt.

The original sentence is nice and clear because it puts the even if clause first, then the main clause.

In Latin, changing word order often changes:

• emphasis
• rhythm
• style

more than basic meaning.

The comma separates the subordinate clause from the main clause.

Structure:

• Etiam si pluvia gravis cadit = subordinate clause
• cives ad templum veniunt = main clause

In English, we also commonly use a comma after an introductory clause:

• Even if heavy rain is falling, the citizens come to the temple.

Latin manuscripts in antiquity did not always use punctuation the way modern editions do, but in printed Latin for learners, commas are added to make the structure clearer.

No. Gravis is a third-declension adjective, not a first/second-declension one.

That is why its forms do not look like bonus, bona, bonum.

Its nominative singular forms are:

• masculine: gravis
• feminine: gravis
• neuter: grave

So with pluvia (a feminine noun), the correct form is gravis.

This is a useful reminder that not all Latin adjectives follow the -us, -a, -um pattern.

Yes, it is normal and understandable.

Latin often uses cadere = to fall for things like rain. So pluvia cadit literally means rain falls.

English can also say rain falls, though more often we simply say it is raining. Latin does have weather expressions of other kinds too, but pluvia cadit is perfectly straightforward and easy for learners to recognize.