Domina villae, femina benigna, hospitem lassum sine mora accepit et aquam calidam dedit.

Because domina is the subject of the sentence: she is the one doing the actions accepit and dedit.

• domina = the mistress / lady
• nominative singular is the usual case for the subject

So domina ... accepit et ... dedit means the mistress ... received and gave.

Villae here is genitive singular, meaning of the house / estate / villa.

So:

• domina villae = mistress of the house/estate

Latin often uses the genitive where English uses of.

A learner may notice that villae can also be dative singular, but here genitive makes sense because it depends on domina and shows possession or association: the lady of the house.

This is called apposition.

• Domina villae = the mistress of the house
• femina benigna = a kind woman

Both refer to the same person. The second phrase adds more information about the first.

So the structure is:

• The mistress of the house, a kind woman, ...

Latin often uses apposition this way, just like English can.

Because it is in apposition to domina, and appositional nouns normally match the case of the noun they explain.

Since domina is nominative, femina is nominative too. And since benigna describes femina, it also has to be nominative feminine singular.

So:

• domina — nominative singular feminine
• femina — nominative singular feminine
• benigna — nominative singular feminine

They all match because they all describe the same woman.

Because benigna agrees with femina, which is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

Latin adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

So:

• masculine nominative singular: benignus
• feminine nominative singular: benigna
• neuter nominative singular: benignum

Here the noun is feminine, so the adjective must be feminine too.

Because it is the direct object of accepit.

The woman is doing the action of receiving/welcoming the tired guest, so that guest is the direct object.

• hospes = guest
• hospitem = accusative singular
• lassus = tired
• lassum = accusative singular masculine, agreeing with hospitem

So:

• hospitem lassum = the tired guest

The noun hospitem by itself does not make the gender especially obvious to a beginner, but the adjective lassum helps.

• lassum is masculine accusative singular
• if the guest were feminine, you would expect lassam

So the phrase tells us this is a male guest, or at least that Latin is treating the guest as masculine here.

It is ablative singular because the preposition sine takes the ablative.

• sine = without
• mora = ablative singular of mora (delay)

So:

• sine mora = without delay

This is a very common Latin expression.

Both are perfect active indicative, third person singular.

That means:

• accepit = she received / welcomed
• dedit = she gave

The perfect tense often expresses a completed action in the past.

Since both verbs are third person singular, the subject is understood as she from the context:

• accepit = he/she/it received
• dedit = he/she/it gave

Here it must mean she, because the subject is domina.

Because Latin verb endings usually already tell you the person and number.

• accepit = he/she/it received
• dedit = he/she/it gave

Since the subject domina is already stated, there is no need to add a separate pronoun.

Latin often leaves out subject pronouns unless they are needed for emphasis or contrast.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show each word’s job.

A very common Latin tendency is to place the verb near the end, especially in narrative prose.

So this pattern is very natural:

• subject and descriptions first
• object before the verb
• verb at the end

For example:

• hospitem lassum ... accepit
• aquam calidam dedit

English depends much more on word order, but Latin depends more on endings.

Yes, the order could be reversed. Both would be grammatical.

Because aquam and calidam agree in case, number, and gender, Latin does not need a fixed adjective-noun order.

Here:

• aquam = accusative singular feminine
• calidam = accusative singular feminine

So they clearly belong together.

Latin can place adjectives before or after nouns for style, emphasis, rhythm, or nuance. In this sentence, aquam calidam is simply one natural way to say warm water.

Because it is the direct object of dedit.

She gave what?
She gave warm water.

So:

• aqua = nominative
• aquam = accusative

And the adjective matches:

• calida = nominative feminine singular
• calidam = accusative feminine singular

It connects the two actions:

• accepit
• dedit

So the sentence describes a sequence:

• she received/welcomed the tired guest
• and she gave warm water

Because the same subject applies to both verbs, Latin does not repeat domina.

In this sentence, aquam calidam is the thing given, so it is in the accusative as the direct object.

If Latin wanted to show the person to whom something was given, it would often use the dative. For example, you might expect something like hospiti aquam dedit = she gave water to the guest.

But in this sentence, only the thing given is explicitly stated:

• aquam calidam dedit = she gave warm water

The person receiving it is understood from the context.

The verb comes from accipio, accipere, accepi, acceptum, meaning receive, accept, or sometimes welcome depending on context.

Here accepit is the perfect tense form built from that verb.

A learner often benefits from recognizing:

• present stem: accipit = she receives
• perfect: accepit = she received

It comes from do, dare, dedi, datum, meaning give.

So:

• dat = she gives
• dedit = she gave

This is an extremely common Latin verb, and its perfect form dedit is worth memorizing early.

Yes. That is a very close grammatical reading.

Some words allow more than one natural English choice:

• villa can mean villa, country house, estate, or sometimes more generally household setting, depending on context
• accepit can mean received, accepted, or welcomed
• sine mora can mean without delay or immediately

So several English translations are possible, but the Latin grammar stays the same.