Aprilis mihi gratior est quam Februarius, quia primi flores in horto apparent.

Mihi is the dative singular of ego, and it means to me or for me.

The adjective gratus and its comparative gratior are often used with the dative to show the person who finds something pleasing. So:

• Aprilis mihi gratior est = April is more pleasing to me

A native English speaker may want to say something like ego magis amo Aprilem, but Latin often expresses this idea with something is pleasing to someone rather than someone likes something.

Gratior is the comparative form of gratus, which means pleasing, welcome, or dear.

So:

• gratus = pleasing
• gratior = more pleasing

The ending -ior is a normal comparative ending in Latin. In this sentence, gratior agrees with Aprilis, so it is nominative singular.

A good literal sense is:

• April is more pleasing to me than February

Quam means than in comparisons.

So:

• gratior est quam Februarius = is more pleasing than February

Latin often uses comparative adjective + quam to compare two things directly.

When Latin uses quam, the thing being compared is usually put in the same case as the first item.

Here:

• Aprilis is nominative
• Februarius is also nominative

That is because the comparison is really:

• Aprilis gratior est quam Februarius est

In English we shorten this too: April is nicer than February.

Aprilis is nominative singular, just like Februarius, but the two nouns belong to different declensions.

• Aprilis is a third-declension masculine noun
• Februarius is a second-declension masculine noun

So even though both are subjects, they have different nominative endings because they come from different noun patterns.

Also, the names of the months are normally masculine in Latin.

Latin has no definite or indefinite article. That means there is no separate word for the, a, or an.

So primi flores can mean:

• the first flowers
• first flowers

The context tells you which is more natural in English.

This is very common in Latin, and English speakers have to get used to not seeing articles written explicitly.

Primi is an adjective meaning first, and it agrees with flores.

Here are the forms:

• primi = nominative plural masculine
• flores = nominative plural masculine

They match in:

• gender: masculine
• number: plural
• case: nominative

Because flores is the subject of apparent, the adjective describing it must also be nominative plural masculine.

Apparent is the third person plural present active indicative of appareo, apparere, meaning appear.

Why plural? Because the subject is primi flores:

• the first flowers appear

If the subject were singular, the verb would be singular too.

Because in takes different cases depending on the meaning:

• in + ablative = in/on a place, showing location
• in + accusative = into/onto, showing motion toward

Here the flowers are appearing in the garden, meaning they are located there, so Latin uses the ablative:

• in horto = in the garden

If someone were going into the garden, you would expect in hortum.

Quia means because and introduces the reason:

• quia primi flores in horto apparent = because the first flowers appear in the garden

It introduces a subordinate clause explaining why April is more pleasing.

Latin can also use other words for because, such as quod, but quia is a very common and straightforward choice.

The word order is natural Latin, but Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

The sentence is arranged like this:

• Aprilis mihi gratior est quam Februarius
• quia primi flores in horto apparent

A few things to notice:

• The main idea Aprilis ... gratior est comes first.
• mihi is placed early, so the personal point of view is clear.
• The reason clause with quia comes afterward.
• The verb apparent comes at the end of its clause, which is very common in Latin.

So yes, the order is meaningful and natural, but Latin could rearrange parts of the sentence more freely than English can.