Frater rogatus sententiam transferre conatur, sed verbum unum non bene transfert et deinde tacet.

Rogatus is a perfect passive participle, meaning having been asked or simply asked.

So Frater rogatus ... conatur means:

• The brother, having been asked, tries ...
• or more naturally in English, The brother, when asked, tries ...

It is not the main verb of the sentence. The main verb is conatur.

This participle agrees with frater:

• frater = masculine singular nominative
• rogatus = masculine singular nominative

So rogatus describes the brother.

Yes. A participle is a verbal adjective, and here rogatus modifies frater just as an adjective would.

It still keeps some verbal force, because it comes from rogare (to ask), but grammatically it behaves like an adjective agreeing with frater.

You can think of it as:

• frater bonus = the good brother
• frater rogatus = the asked brother / the brother having been asked

In smoother English, we usually translate it less literally.

Because it is the direct object of transferre.

The phrase sententiam transferre means to translate the sentence.

Here:

• sententiam = accusative singular of sententia
• transferre = to translate / literally to carry across

Since the brother is trying to translate the sentence, the sentence being translated is the object, so it takes the accusative.

Because conor commonly takes a complementary infinitive to express trying to do something.

So:

• conatur transferre = he tries to translate

This is very similar to English:

• he tries to speak
• he tries to run
• he tries to translate the sentence

So conatur gives the idea of attempt, and the infinitive transferre tells what the attempt is about.

Because conor is a deponent verb.

Deponent verbs:

• have passive forms
• but active meanings

So:

• conatur looks passive in form
• but means he tries, not he is tried

This is normal for deponent verbs. A learner often just has to memorize that conor, conari, conatus sum means to try.

They are two different forms of the same verb:

• transferre = present active infinitive = to translate
• transfert = 3rd person singular present active indicative = he translates

So the sentence says:

• first, he tries to translate the sentence
• then, he does not translate one word well

The change in form matches the change in function:

• infinitive after conatur
• finite verb for the new clause after sed

Verbum unum means one word.

It is in the accusative because it is the direct object of transfert:

• verbum = accusative singular neuter
• unum = adjective agreeing with verbum

So:

• verbum unum non bene transfert = he does not translate one word well

Latin often puts the noun before the numeral/adjective, so verbum unum is perfectly natural.

Latin can say either:

• non bene = not well
• male = badly

Both are possible, but they are not always identical in tone.

Non bene often sounds a little softer or more neutral:

• he does not translate it well

Male can sound more direct:

• he translates it badly

So non bene transfert is a natural way to say that the translation is not good.

Sed means but and introduces a contrast.

The contrast is:

• he tries to translate the sentence,
• but he does not translate one word well,
• and then he falls silent.

So sed marks the shift from the attempt to the problem.

Deinde means then, next, or afterward.

It adds a clearer sense of sequence:

• first he mistranslates one word,
• then he becomes silent.

If the sentence had only et tacet, that would just mean and he is silent.
With deinde, the order of events is more explicit:

• et deinde tacet = and then he falls silent

Because the whole sentence is narrated in the present:

• conatur = tries
• transfert = translates
• tacet = is silent / falls silent

Latin often uses the present for straightforward narration, especially in simple textbook sentences.

Depending on context, tacet can be understood as:

• is silent
• becomes silent
• falls silent

The exact English wording depends on what sounds most natural.

Literally, tacet means he is silent or he keeps quiet.

But in this context, because it follows an action sequence, English often translates it more naturally as:

• then he falls silent
• then he becomes silent
• then he says nothing

So the Latin itself is simple, but English may need a slightly more idiomatic rendering.

The word order is flexible, but not meaningless.

Latin uses endings more than word order to show grammatical function, so the sentence could be rearranged in other ways and still make sense.

Still, this order is natural:

• Frater rogatus sets up the subject with its participle
• sententiam transferre gives the action attempted
• conatur comes at the end of the clause, which is very common in Latin prose

So the word order helps the sentence flow, even though the endings do most of the grammatical work.

Yes, that is a very reasonable translation.

A perfect passive participle often implies prior action, so:

• Frater rogatus ... conatur can mean
  • The brother, after being asked, tries ...
  • The brother, having been asked, tries ...
  • When asked, the brother tries ...

The best English version depends on style rather than strict grammar.

Because Latin does not have to state the agent if it is unimportant or obvious.

Rogatus simply tells us that the brother was asked. It does not say who asked him.

If Latin wanted to specify the agent, it could use ab with the ablative:

• Frater ab amico rogatus ...
• The brother, having been asked by a friend ...

But here the sentence does not need that detail.

Frater is nominative singular, and it is the subject of the main verbs:

• conatur
• transfert
• tacet

We know this because:

• its form is nominative
• the verbs are all 3rd person singular, matching frater
• rogatus also agrees with it in nominative singular masculine

So the basic subject throughout the sentence is the brother.