Magistra responsum Luciae approbat, quia sententiam clare scripsit.

Magistra is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of a sentence. So magistra means the teacher as the person doing the action.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order, so the subject does not have to come first, but putting magistra first gives it a natural emphasis and makes the sentence easy to follow.

Responsum is the accusative singular form of responsum, responsi, a neuter noun meaning answer or reply.

It is in the accusative because it is the direct object of approbat: the teacher approves the answer.

A useful reminder:

• neuter nominative singular: responsum
• neuter accusative singular: responsum

So here the form looks the same in nominative and accusative, which is very common with neuter nouns.

Here Luciae is most naturally genitive singular, meaning of Lucia or Lucia’s.

So responsum Luciae means Lucia’s answer.

This is a very common Latin way to show possession:

• liber pueri = the boy’s book
• responsum Luciae = Lucia’s answer

A learner may notice that Luciae could also be dative singular in form. That is true in general, but here the meaning and structure point to the genitive.

Latin does not show possession with an apostrophe. Instead, it uses the genitive case.

So where English says:

• Lucia’s answer

Latin says:

• responsum Luciae

The ending itself shows the relationship.

Approbat is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• from approbo, approbare

So it means he/she approves or the teacher approves.

Because the subject is magistra, we understand:

• Magistra ... approbat = The teacher approves ...

It is singular because the subject, magistra, is singular.

Latin verbs change form to match their subject:

• magistra approbat = the teacher approves
• magistrae approbant = the teachers approve

So the -t ending tells you the verb has a singular subject in the third person.

Quia means because. It introduces a clause giving the reason:

• Magistra responsum Luciae approbat = The teacher approves Lucia’s answer
• quia sententiam clare scripsit = because she wrote the sentence clearly

So the second part explains why the teacher approves the answer.

The subject is not stated explicitly, because Latin often leaves subject pronouns out when the verb ending already shows the person and number.

Scripsit means he/she wrote. The subject could in theory be she or he, but from the context it is most naturally understood as Lucia.

So the idea is:

• The teacher approves Lucia’s answer, because Lucia wrote the sentence clearly.

Latin often expects you to work out the subject from context.

Scripsit is the perfect tense of scribo, meaning wrote or has written.

So:

• scribit = writes / is writing
• scripsit = wrote / has written

In this sentence, the writing is treated as a completed action that explains the teacher’s approval. The answer is approved now, because the sentence was written clearly.

This is a very normal Latin combination.

• approbat describes the main action as happening in the present: the teacher approves
• scripsit describes the reason as a completed action: because she wrote

So the meaning is roughly:

• The teacher approves Lucia’s answer now, because she wrote the sentence clearly earlier / as a completed act.

English does this too:

• She approves it because Lucia wrote it clearly.

Sententiam is the accusative singular of sententia, which often means sentence, opinion, or thought, depending on context.

Here it means sentence.

It is accusative because it is the direct object of scripsit:

• sententiam scripsit = she wrote the sentence

So the sentence has two different direct objects in two different clauses:

• responsum with approbat
• sententiam with scripsit

They refer to two different things:

• responsum = answer
• sententiam = sentence

So the teacher approves Lucia’s answer, and the reason is that Lucia wrote the sentence clearly.

A learner might expect the same noun in both places, but Latin is distinguishing between:

1. the whole answer
2. the specific sentence within it, or the sentence Lucia wrote as part of the answer

Clare is an adverb, meaning clearly. It modifies the verb scripsit.

So:

• clare scripsit = she wrote clearly

If Latin used an adjective instead, it would describe a noun, not the action. But here we want to describe how she wrote, so an adverb is needed.

Compare:

• clara sententia = a clear sentence
• sententiam clare scripsit = she wrote the sentence clearly

The basic meaning stays the same because the endings show the grammar:

• sententiam is the object
• scripsit is the verb
• clare modifies the verb

So Latin could rearrange these words more freely than English. However, the chosen order is natural and clear:

• object first: sententiam
• adverb next: clare
• verb at the end: scripsit

Putting the verb at the end is especially common in Latin prose.

Grammatically, scripsit only tells us he/she wrote, so by form alone it does not name the subject. In theory, one might ask whether it refers to magistra.

But in context, the most natural reading is that it refers to Lucia, because the teacher is approving Lucia’s answer. The reason for that approval is most sensibly that Lucia wrote the sentence clearly.

So there is a small grammatical openness, but the context strongly guides the interpretation.

No. Here quia is followed by scripsit, which is indicative, not subjunctive.

That is normal when quia gives a straightforward reason:

• quia ... scripsit = because ... she wrote

A learner may expect subordinate clauses to use the subjunctive a lot in Latin, and many do, but quia commonly takes the indicative when the reason is presented as a fact.