Medica guttur eius spectat et dicit vocem paulum raucam esse.

Latin normally does not use articles. So medica can mean the doctor or a doctor, and guttur can mean the throat or a throat, depending on context.

In this sentence, English naturally supplies the: The female doctor examines his/her throat...

Medica is the feminine form of doctor. It is:

• nominative singular
• feminine
• the subject of spectat and dicit

So the sentence specifically has a female doctor. If the doctor were male, Latin would usually have medicus.

Guttur is accusative singular here, the direct object of spectat.

It looks the same as the nominative because guttur is a neuter third-declension noun. For many neuter nouns in Latin, the nominative and accusative singular are identical.

So:

• nominative singular: guttur
• accusative singular: guttur
• genitive singular: gutturis

Eius means his, her, or its, depending on context. It is the genitive singular form of is, ea, id.

So guttur eius means:

• his throat
• her throat
• possibly its throat, though that is less likely here

A key point: eius refers to someone other than the subject of the sentence. Since the subject is medica, eius means the throat belongs to someone else, presumably the patient.

This is a very common learner question.

Latin uses:

• suus, -a, -um for a reflexive possessive, referring back to the subject
• eius for his/her/its, referring to someone else

Since medica is the subject, suum guttur would mean her own throat. But that is not the meaning here. The doctor is examining another person's throat, so Latin uses guttur eius.

Yes, basically. Spectat is from spectare, meaning to look at, watch, or sometimes inspect/examine, depending on context.

In a medical sentence like this, guttur eius spectat is best understood as something like:

• she looks at his/her throat
• she examines his/her throat

So the verb is doing more than casual seeing; the context makes it sound like an examination.

This is the Latin indirect statement construction, also called the accusative and infinitive construction.

After a verb of saying, thinking, knowing, hearing, and so on, Latin often uses:

• an accusative noun as the subject of the reported statement
• an infinitive as the verb of that statement

So here:

• dicit = she says
• vocem = the subject of the reported statement, put into the accusative
• esse = to be
• raucam = adjective describing vocem

Literally, Latin says something like:

• she says the voice to be a little hoarse

Natural English turns that into:

• she says that the voice is a little hoarse

Because vocem is accusative singular, and in an indirect statement the logical subject of the infinitive is put in the accusative.

The basic noun is:

• nominative: vox = voice
• accusative: vocem

So although voice is the subject of is hoarse in English, Latin makes it accusative because it is the subject of esse inside indirect statement after dicit.

Because raucam agrees with vocem.

Vocem is:

• feminine
• singular
• accusative

So the adjective describing it must also be:

• feminine
• singular
• accusative

That gives raucam.

If the noun were masculine or neuter, or plural, the adjective form would change to match.

Paulum means a little, slightly, or somewhat here.

It softens raucam, so the meaning is:

• a little hoarse
• slightly hoarse

You can think of it as functioning adverbially, even though its form is originally a neuter accusative.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order. The infinitive esse often comes at or near the end of an indirect statement.

So dicit vocem paulum raucam esse is a very natural Latin arrangement.

Latin often places important structural words, especially verbs, later in the clause. English usually prefers that the voice is a little hoarse, but Latin is comfortable with the infinitive closing the whole statement.

Yes. A very literal unpacking would be:

• Medica = the female doctor
• guttur eius = his/her throat
• spectat = looks at / examines
• et dicit = and says
• vocem = the voice
• paulum raucam = a little hoarse
• esse = to be

So the Latin structure is roughly:

• The female doctor examines his/her throat and says the voice to be a little hoarse.

That is not natural English, but it shows the grammar clearly. Natural English is:

• The female doctor examines his/her throat and says that the voice is a little hoarse.