Mater paulum garum cum porro et rapis miscet, sed avia dicit brassicam sine garo meliorem esse.

Because mater is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject. The verb miscet is also third-person singular, so mater miscet means mother mixes.

The same thing happens in the second clause: avia dicit = grandmother says.

It means a little garum.

Here paulum means a small amount or a little, and it goes with garum. So the phrase is the thing being mixed.

A learner may also notice that in more classical Latin, with a mass noun, you can often find a partitive genitive, for example paulum gari. But in simpler teaching Latin, paulum garum is often used straightforwardly for a little garum.

Because cum takes the ablative case.

So:

• porro = ablative singular of porrum (leek)
• rapis = ablative plural of rapa (turnip)

That is why Latin says cum porro et rapis = with leek and turnips.

Because one preposition can govern more than one noun when they are joined by et.

So cum porro et rapis means with leek and turnips. Latin does not need to repeat cum before the second noun.

It is the same noun, but in different cases.

• garum is accusative singular, used as the direct object of miscet
• garo is ablative singular, used after sine

So:

• paulum garum miscet = she mixes a little garum
• sine garo = without garum

The main direct object is paulum garum. The phrase with cum gives the things it is mixed with:

• paulum garum = the thing being mixed
• cum porro et rapis = with leek and turnips

So the structure is: Mother mixes a little garum with leek and turnips.

Because after a verb like dicit (says), Latin often uses indirect statement, also called the accusative-and-infinitive construction.

In that construction, the subject of the reported statement goes into the accusative. So:

• brassicam = cabbage as the subject of the reported idea
• but it appears in the accusative, not nominative

Literally, Latin says something like:

grandmother says cabbage to be better without garum

Natural English turns that into:

grandmother says that cabbage is better without garum

Because Latin usually does not need one here.

English says:

Grandmother says that cabbage is better.

Latin normally expresses this by using accusative + infinitive:

avia dicit brassicam meliorem esse

So the idea of that is built into the construction itself.

Because meliorem has to agree with brassicam.

Melior, melius means better and is the comparative of bonus (good). Its form changes to match the noun it describes.

Since brassicam is feminine accusative singular, the adjective must also be feminine accusative singular:

• brassicam meliorem

Not:

• melior — nominative form
• melius — neuter form (or adverbial use)

Because indirect statement uses an infinitive, not a normal finite verb.

So after dicit, Latin says:

• brassicam ... meliorem esse

not

• brassica ... melior est

The infinitive esse means to be. Literally:

grandmother says cabbage to be better without garum

In normal English: grandmother says that cabbage is better without garum.

No. Latin word order is fairly flexible because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

This sentence uses a clear, natural order, but Latin could rearrange parts for emphasis. For example, the second clause could also be:

sed avia brassicam sine garo meliorem esse dicit

That still means the same thing. The endings, not just the position, tell you what each word is doing.