Plurimae discipulae magistrae favent, quia plane intellegunt consilium eius bonum esse.

Because plurimae is an adjective modifying discipulae, and Latin adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in gender, number, and case.

Here both words are:

• feminine
• nominative
• plural

So plurimae discipulae means very many female students or most of the female students.

Plurimae is the feminine nominative plural form of plurimus, the superlative related to multus.

Depending on context, it can mean:

• very many
• a great many
• most

So plurimae discipulae could be understood as either very many students or most of the students. Context usually decides which English translation sounds best.

On its own, magistrae is ambiguous. It could be:

• nominative plural = teachers
• genitive singular = of the teacher
• dative singular = to/for the teacher

But in this sentence, the verb favent helps you. Favere takes the dative, so magistrae must mean to the teacher.

So:

• discipulae = the students
• magistrae = to the teacher

Because favere is one of those Latin verbs that govern the dative case rather than the accusative.

So Latin says:

• magistrae favent = they favor the teacher / they are well-disposed toward the teacher

A native English speaker often expects a direct object after favor, but Latin handles this idea differently. It is more like they show favor to the teacher.

Intellegunt is 3rd person plural present active, meaning they understand.

Its subject is still discipulae. Latin often does not repeat the subject if it is already clear.

So the structure is:

• Plurimae discipulae magistrae favent
• quia plane intellegunt...

That means: Very many students favor the teacher, because they clearly understand...

The -nt ending on intellegunt already tells you the subject is they.

Plane is an adverb. Here it modifies intellegunt.

So it means something like:

• clearly
• plainly
• fully

Thus plane intellegunt means they understand clearly or they fully understand.

This is an indirect statement, a very common Latin construction.

After verbs like:

• intellego = understand
• scio = know
• dico = say
• puto = think

Latin often uses:

• accusative subject
• infinitive verb

So consilium eius bonum esse means:

• that her plan is good

More literally:

• her plan to be good

A few details:

• consilium = plan
• eius = her
• bonum = good
• esse = to be

In English, we normally use that:

• they understand that her plan is good

In Latin, the that is not expressed with a separate word here.

Because eius refers to someone other than the subject of the main verb.

The subject of intellegunt is the students. But eius refers to the teacher.

Latin uses:

• suus, sua, suum for one's own, referring back to the subject
• eius for his / her / its, referring to someone else

So here:

• consilium eius = her plan = the teacher's plan

If the sentence meant their own plan, referring to the students, Latin would use suum instead.

Because it agrees with consilium, which is a neuter singular noun.

In Latin, predicate adjectives agree with the noun they describe. Since consilium is neuter singular, the adjective must also be neuter singular:

• consilium bonum = a good plan
• consilium... bonum esse = the plan to be good

So bonum is not chosen because of English word order, but because it matches consilium.

In the indirect statement, it is functioning as the subject of the infinitive esse, and that subject is normally put in the accusative.

So syntactically, consilium is accusative here.

However, consilium is a neuter noun, and in neuter nouns the nominative and accusative singular often look exactly the same. So the form does not change, even though its job in the sentence does.

That is why English speakers sometimes find this hard to spot at first.

Not especially. Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

This sentence is quite natural:

• Plurimae discipulae = subject first
• magistrae favent = then the verb phrase
• quia... = then the reason

Inside the indirect statement, consilium eius bonum esse is also normal Latin ordering.

A few points to remember:

• Latin uses endings, not just position, to show grammatical function.
• Important words are often placed for emphasis.
• consilium eius and eius consilium could both occur in Latin.

So the order may feel different from English, but it is not strange Latin.