Serva dominam rogat utrum infanti lac calidum parare debeat.

Because serva is the subject of rogat and dominam is its direct object.

• serva = the female slave / maidservant → nominative singular
• dominam = the mistress / lady → accusative singular

The verb rogare commonly takes the person asked as a direct object in the accusative, so dominam rogat means asks the mistress.

Utrum introduces an indirect yes/no question. Here it means whether.

So:

• utrum ... debeat = whether ... she ought to

A learner may know utrum ... an ... as whether ... or ..., but utrum can also appear by itself when only one possibility is stated.

Because it is inside an indirect question introduced by utrum.

In Latin, indirect questions regularly use the subjunctive, not the indicative. So:

• direct question: Debetne ... ? = Should she ... ?
• indirect question: rogat utrum ... debeat = she asks whether she should ...

So debeat is not subjunctive because the action is doubtful in some vague sense; it is subjunctive because Latin grammar requires it in an indirect question.

Debeat is:

• from debeo, debere = to owe; to have to; ought to
• 3rd person singular
• present
• active
• subjunctive

So it means he/she/it should or ought to.

In this sentence, the understood subject is feminine in context, so we translate she should / she ought to.

Grammatically, the sentence can be ambiguous.

The clause utrum infanti lac calidum parare debeat has no expressed subject. Since debeat is only 3rd person singular, it could mean:

• whether the slave should prepare warm milk for the baby, or
• whether the mistress should prepare warm milk for the baby

Latin often leaves pronouns unstated when the context makes them clear. But in a sentence like this, without more context, English learners may reasonably feel that the subject is not fully specified.

If Latin wanted to make it clearer, it could add a pronoun or noun.

Because it means for the infant / for the baby.

With parare (to prepare), the thing prepared is usually in the accusative, and the person it is prepared for can be in the dative.

So:

• lac = the thing prepared → accusative
• infanti = the recipient / beneficiary → dative

That is why infanti lac calidum parare means to prepare warm milk for the baby.

Because lac is the direct object of parare, and calidum is an adjective agreeing with lac.

• lac = milk
• calidum = warm

Since lac is neuter singular, the adjective must also be neuter singular:

• lac calidum = warm milk

This agreement is normal in Latin: adjectives match their nouns in gender, number, and case.

Because Latin grammatical gender is not the same as real-life sex.

The noun lac is grammatically neuter, so any adjective describing it must also be neuter:

• lac calidum

This does not mean milk is somehow thought of as biologically neuter; it is just a grammatical category.

It is the infinitive used with debeat.

The combination debet/debeat + infinitive means ought to / should + verb.

So:

• parare debeat = should prepare

This is very similar to English should prepare, where should is followed by the base form of the verb.

Yes, the word order is perfectly normal.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show the grammatical roles. The basic structure here is:

• Serva = subject
• dominam rogat = asks the mistress
• utrum ... debeat = whether ... she should ...

Putting the indirect question after rogat is natural, just as in English: The slave asks the mistress whether ...

Within the indirect question, Latin also places words flexibly:

• infanti first can emphasize the baby as the recipient
• lac calidum stays together as a noun plus adjective
• parare debeat closes the clause neatly with infinitive + finite verb

Because Latin has no articles.

So:

• serva can mean a female slave or the female slave
• dominam can mean a mistress or the mistress
• infanti can mean for a baby or for the baby

English must choose a/an or the, but Latin usually leaves that to the context.

Its basic meaning is female slave, but depending on context it can be translated more smoothly as maidservant or sometimes simply maid.

The exact English choice depends on the setting:

• in a Roman household context, female slave may be the most accurate
• in a simplified teaching sentence, maidservant may sound more natural in English

So a learner should know the literal meaning, but also be aware that translations may vary.

Yes. Latin has several ways to introduce questions, but utrum is a standard way to introduce an indirect yes/no question.

For example, in other contexts you may see:

• -ne
• num
• an
• utrum ... an ...

But in this sentence, utrum clearly signals whether and is a very straightforward textbook choice.

Because rogat here introduces a question, not a statement.

Latin uses the accusative + infinitive mainly for indirect statements, as after verbs like dicit (he says) or putat (he thinks).

But after a verb like rogat when the content is a question, Latin normally uses an indirect question:

• rogat utrum ... debeat = asks whether ... she should ...

So the grammar matches the meaning: it is a question being reported, not a statement being reported.