Deinde ova in sartagine coquuntur, et mater patellam calidam e foco tollit.

Ova is the nominative plural of ovum (egg).

It is plural because the sentence is talking about eggs, not just one egg. Since ova is the subject of coquuntur, it must be in the nominative case.

A useful reminder: ovum is a neuter noun, so its plural nominative ending is -a, which is very common for second-declension neuter nouns.

• singular: ovum
• plural: ova

Coquuntur is present passive, third person plural, from coquere (to cook).

So it means they are cooked.

It matches ova, which is plural:

• ova coquuntur = the eggs are cooked / the eggs are being cooked

If the sentence were active, you might expect something like:

• mater ova coquitur would actually be wrong, because coquitur is passive singular
• mater ova coquit = mother cooks the eggs

Here Latin chooses the passive in the first clause:

• ova ... coquuntur = the eggs are cooked

Because in takes the ablative when it means in or on in the sense of location.

Here in sartagine means in the frying pan or in the pan, so it answers the question where?

• in + ablative = in/on (location)
• in + accusative = into/onto (motion toward)

So:

• in sartagine = in the pan
• if it meant into the pan, you would expect an accusative form instead

Sartagine is the ablative singular of sartago, sartaginis, a third-declension feminine noun meaning frying pan or skillet.

That is why its form may look unfamiliar if you are used to first- and second-declension nouns.

Its basic forms are:

• nominative singular: sartago
• genitive singular: sartaginis
• ablative singular: sartagine

So in in sartagine, the noun is ablative because of in with location.

Because mater is the subject of tollit, while patellam is its direct object.

• mater tollit = mother lifts
• patellam tollit = she lifts the dish/pan

So:

• mater is nominative singular: the person doing the action
• patellam is accusative singular: the thing being lifted

This is a very common Latin pattern:

• subject in the nominative
• direct object in the accusative

Because calidam is an adjective describing patellam, and in Latin adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• patellam = accusative singular feminine
• calidam = accusative singular feminine

So patellam calidam means the hot dish/pan.

Even though one word is a noun and the other is an adjective, they have matching endings because they go together grammatically.

They are two different nouns.

• sartago usually means a frying pan or skillet
• patella can mean a pan, dish, or plate, depending on context

In this sentence, the first clause uses sartagine for the pan in which the eggs are cooking, and the second clause uses patellam for the item the mother lifts from the fire.

A learner might notice that English may translate both with something like pan, but Latin is using two different words.

Both e and ex mean out of or from.

Latin often uses:

• e before consonants
• ex before vowels or sometimes h

So e foco is completely normal:

• e foco = from the hearth/fire

You may also see variation in authors, but for a learner the main thing is:

• e/ex + ablative

Here foco is ablative singular from focus.

Because the preposition e requires the ablative.

So:

• e foco = from the fire/hearth

This is an example of a preposition governing a specific case. A very useful vocabulary habit is to learn prepositions together with the case they take.

For example:

• in + ablative = location
• ad + accusative = toward
• e/ex + ablative = out of, from

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show how the words function.

So:

• mater patellam calidam e foco tollit can naturally put the verb at the end.

This is very common in Latin. The verb often comes last, but it does not have to. Latin word order is often used for style, emphasis, or rhythm, not just grammar.

An English speaker may want to rearrange it mentally as:

• mater tollit patellam calidam e foco

But the original Latin order is perfectly normal.

Yes. Both are present tense.

• coquuntur = are cooked / are being cooked
• tollit = lifts / is lifting

In Latin, the present tense can often be translated in more than one way in English, depending on context:

• simple present: cooks, lifts
• progressive: is cooking, is lifting

So the sentence may sound more natural in English with are cooking/are being cooked and is lifting, even though Latin simply uses the present tense.

That is just the way the sentence chooses to present the action.

First clause:

• ova in sartagine coquuntur
• focus is on the eggs and what is happening to them

Second clause:

• mater patellam calidam e foco tollit
• focus is on the mother and what she does

Latin often switches between passive and active depending on what the writer wants to emphasize. Here the eggs are the center of attention in the first part, but the mother becomes the center of attention in the second.

Deinde means then or next.

It is an adverb showing sequence:

• first one thing happens
• deinde another thing happens

So it helps move the narrative forward. Latin often uses words like deinde, tum, or postea to show the order of events.

Here it tells us that this action happens next in the process.