Avia puellam ad cubiculum dūcit, ut melius dormiat.

Because puellam is the direct object of dūcit.

The verb dūcit means leads or takes, so the sentence is telling us whom the grandmother is leading: the girl. In Latin, the direct object is usually put in the accusative case.

• puella = girl
• puellam = the girl as a direct object

So Avia puellam dūcit means The grandmother leads the girl.

Because the preposition ad takes the accusative when it means to or toward.

Here, ad cubiculum means to the bedroom. This shows motion toward a place, and Latin regularly uses ad + accusative for that idea.

So:

• ad cubiculum = to the bedroom
• cubiculum is accusative because it follows ad

Dūcit is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from the verb dūcō, dūcere, dūxī, ductum, meaning to lead or to take.

So dūcit means:

• he leads
• she leads
• it leads

In this sentence, the subject is avia, so it means she leads.

Because avia is the subject of the main verb dūcit.

The nominative case is normally used for the subject of a sentence. Here, avia is the one doing the action.

• avia = grandmother
• nominative singular = the grandmother as subject

So Avia dūcit = The grandmother leads.

Because ut + subjunctive is the normal way to express a purpose clause in Latin.

Here, the grandmother leads the girl to the bedroom so that she may sleep better. That idea of purpose is expressed by:

• ut = so that / in order that
• dormiat = subjunctive verb

So ut melius dormiat means so that she may sleep better or in order that she might sleep better.

English often uses an infinitive for purpose, but Latin commonly uses ut + subjunctive instead.

Because it is in a purpose clause introduced by ut.

Latin uses the subjunctive after ut when the clause explains the purpose of the action in the main clause.

So:

• dūcit = the main action
• ut melius dormiat = the reason/purpose for that action

This is a very common Latin pattern: ut + subjunctive = so that / in order that

The subject is understood to be the girl.

Latin often leaves out subject pronouns when they are clear from context. In this sentence, the grandmother leads the girl to the bedroom so that she may sleep better. The she naturally refers to puellam.

So even though no separate word for she appears, the meaning is understood.

Because melius is an adverb, while melior is an adjective.

Here the word is modifying the verb dormiat: it tells us how she sleeps. Since it modifies a verb, Latin uses an adverb.

• bene = well
• melius = better

By contrast:

• melior = better as an adjective, used with a noun

So:

• melius dormit = she sleeps better
• melior puella = a better girl

Not always. Ut is a very flexible word in Latin.

Depending on context, it can mean things like:

• as
• when
• so that / in order that
• that in some result clauses

In this sentence, because ut is followed by a subjunctive verb and clearly expresses purpose, it means so that or in order that.

Yes. Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

So the sentence could be rearranged in several ways without changing the basic meaning, for example:

• Puellam avia ad cubiculum dūcit, ut melius dormiat.
• Avia ad cubiculum puellam dūcit, ut melius dormiat.

The original order is natural and clear, but different arrangements can add different kinds of emphasis.

The macron shows that a vowel is long.

So in dūcit, the ū is long. Macrons help learners with:

• pronunciation
• distinguishing forms
• recognizing patterns in verbs and nouns

They are very useful in textbooks, although many Latin texts do not print them consistently.

In this sentence:

• dūcit has a long ū
• cubiculum does not have a macron here
• dormiat has no long vowel marked in this form

Sometimes, yes, depending on context.

Strictly speaking, ad most directly means to or toward. So ad cubiculum is most literally to the bedroom.

But in natural English, if the idea is that she is being taken all the way there, a translator might say:

• to the bedroom
• into the bedroom

The Latin itself uses ad, so the core idea is movement toward that place.