Si guttur tuum dolet, aquam tepidam bibere debes.

Si is the normal Latin word for if in straightforward conditional sentences.

In this sentence, Si guttur tuum dolet... means If your throat hurts...

Latin also has other conditional expressions, but si is the basic one learners see first.

Guttur is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of dolet.

Literal structure:

• guttur = throat
• dolet = hurts / is painful

So Latin is saying something like your throat hurts or more literally your throat is painful.

Tuum is the possessive adjective meaning your, and it must agree with the noun it describes.

Here it describes guttur, which is:

• neuter
• singular
• nominative

So the correct form is tuum.

Agreement here is:

• guttur = neuter nominative singular
• tuum = neuter nominative singular

So guttur tuum = your throat

The verb is doleo, dolere, which means to hurt, to feel pain, or to be painful.

Here dolet is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense

It matches guttur, which is singular:

• guttur dolet = the throat hurts

Latin often expresses pain this way, with the body part as the subject.

Because the subject of dolet is not you. The subject is guttur tuum = your throat.

So:

• guttur tuum dolet = your throat hurts

The person you only appears in the possessive adjective tuum. Grammatically, the verb agrees with guttur, not with the owner of the throat.

Aquam is the direct object of bibere.

The verb bibere means to drink, and the thing being drunk takes the accusative in Latin.

So:

• aqua = water
• aquam = water as the object of drink

That is why it ends in -am.

Because tepidam is an adjective describing aquam, and Latin adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• aquam is feminine accusative singular
• so tepidam must also be feminine accusative singular

So:

• aquam tepidam = lukewarm water

Latin uses debeo + infinitive to express ought to, should, or must.

So:

• debes = you ought / you should / you must
• bibere = to drink

Together:

• bibere debes = you should drink

You cannot say debes bibis because after debes, Latin normally uses the infinitive, not another finite verb.

Because Latin verb endings usually already show the subject.

Debes means:

• you owe
• you ought
• you should

The ending -s tells you it is 2nd person singular, so Latin does not need to add tu unless it wants emphasis.

So:

• bibere debes = you should drink
• tu bibere debes would be more emphatic: you should drink

Yes. Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because case endings show how words relate to each other.

This sentence could appear in other orders, such as:

• Si tuum guttur dolet, aquam tepidam bibere debes.
• Aquam tepidam bibere debes, si guttur tuum dolet.

The original order is natural and clear, but Latin does not rely on word order as strictly as English does.

This is a simple real condition:

• If your throat hurts, you should drink lukewarm water.

Latin commonly uses the present indicative in the si clause for this kind of general or real situation:

• si ... dolet = if ... hurts

There is no need for the subjunctive here because the sentence is not expressing something contrary to fact, hypothetical in a special way, or dependent on another mood pattern.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Debeo originally has the idea of owing, and from that it can mean:

• must
• ought to
• should

In this sentence, English often translates it as should because the advice is medical and gentle:

• you should drink lukewarm water

But must is not impossible if the speaker wants to sound stronger.

A careful classroom pronunciation would be something like:

See GOOT-toor TOO-um DOH-let, AH-kwam teh-PEE-dam BEE-beh-reh DEH-bays

A few helpful notes:

• g in guttur is always hard, like g in go
• u is pronounced like oo
• v in restored Classical pronunciation sounds like w, so aquam is roughly AH-kwam
• c is always hard, though there is no c in this sentence

If you are using an ecclesiastical pronunciation system, some sounds may differ slightly, but the grammar stays the same.