Serva catinum cum pomis et pane ad mensam fert.

Because serva is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject.

• serva = female slave / servant girl
• It is a first-declension noun.
• In this sentence, it matches the verb fert = she carries.

So serva is the one doing the action.

Yes, serva can also be the imperative of servare, meaning save!, keep!, or watch!. But not here.

In this sentence:

• fert is already the main finite verb.
• serva fits naturally as a noun meaning female slave.

So context and sentence structure show that serva here is a noun, not a command.

Because catinum is the direct object of fert, so it is in the accusative singular.

• Dictionary form: catinum
• It is a second-declension neuter noun.
• In neuter second-declension nouns, nominative singular and accusative singular are often the same.

So catinum means bowl here, and it is the thing being carried.

They are both in the ablative, because they depend on cum = with.

• cum pomis = with apples
• et pane = and bread

The endings are different because the nouns belong to different declensions:

• pomis comes from pomum and is ablative plural
• pane comes from panis and is ablative singular

So the case is the same, but the declensions are different.

Because one preposition can govern two nouns joined by et.

So:

• cum pomis et pane = with apples and bread

Latin does not need to repeat cum before the second noun, though it could in some contexts for emphasis or clarity.

Because ad takes the accusative case and means to, toward, or up to.

So:

• ad mensam = to the table

This shows motion toward something.
If Latin wanted to say at/on the table, it would usually use a different construction, such as in mensa depending on the meaning.

Fert is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• from the irregular verb fero, ferre = to carry, to bear

So fert means:

• he carries
• she carries
• it carries

Here, because the subject is serva, it means she carries.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show the job of each word.

A very common Latin pattern is:

• subject ... object ... verb

So putting fert at the end is normal and natural. It gives the sentence a typical Latin feel.

English usually depends more on word order, but Latin depends more on endings.

Most naturally, it describes the bowl: it is a bowl with apples and bread in it or associated with it.

So the idea is:

• The female slave carries the bowl with apples and bread to the table.

Latin can sometimes leave this kind of attachment slightly open, and context helps. But here, the most natural reading is that the bowl contains or comes with the apples and bread.

Because classical Latin has no articles.

That means Latin does not have separate words for:

• the
• a / an

So serva can mean:

• the female slave
• a female slave

And catinum can mean:

• the bowl
• a bowl

The exact meaning depends on context.

Because the sentence is talking about apples as more than one item, but bread as a mass noun.

So:

• pomis = with apples
• pane = with bread

This is very natural in both Latin and English. We often count apples, but we often treat bread as an uncountable substance unless we specify a loaf, pieces, and so on.

The preposition ad often means to / toward, especially with verbs of motion such as fert.

Since fert means carries, ad mensam most naturally means:

• to the table

In some contexts ad can have other shades of meaning, but here movement toward a destination is the clearest interpretation.