Serva in mortario allium et salem miscet.

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

• serva = slave woman / female slave / maidservant
• It is a first-declension noun.
• Its nominative singular ending is -a.

So in Serva in mortario allium et salem miscet, serva is the person doing the action.

Yes, by itself serva could also be the imperative of servō, meaning save! or preserve! That is something learners often notice.

But in this sentence, it is clearly a noun, not a verb, because:

• the sentence already has a finite verb: miscet
• serva fits naturally as the subject
• the whole sentence makes sense as The slave-girl mixes...

So here serva means the female slave / maidservant, not save!

They are the direct objects of miscet, so they appear in the accusative case.

• allium = garlic
  
  • here the nominative and accusative singular look the same
• salem = accusative singular of sal, salt

Latin uses the accusative for the thing directly affected by the verb. Since the servant is mixing garlic and salt, both nouns are objects of the mixing.

Because sal is the dictionary form (the nominative singular), but in this sentence the word is a direct object, so it must be in the accusative singular:

• nominative: sal
• accusative: salem

This is a very common thing in Latin: the form you learn in the vocabulary list often changes in a sentence depending on its job.

Because in can take different cases depending on its meaning.

Here it means in / inside a place, so it takes the ablative:

• in mortario = in the mortar

If in meant into with motion toward something, it would take the accusative instead:

• in mortarium = into the mortar

So:

• location → in + ablative
• motion into → in + accusative

miscet is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from misceō, miscēre, meaning to mix.

So miscet means he/she/it mixes.
Since the subject is serva, here it means she mixes.

Because the verb ending already tells you the subject is third person singular.

• miscet = he/she/it mixes

Latin often leaves out subject pronouns unless they are needed for emphasis or clarity. The noun serva already tells us who the subject is, and it also tells us that the subject is feminine.

So Latin does not need to say ea miscet unless there is some special reason to emphasize she.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show each word’s role.

A very common unmarked Latin pattern is:

• subject ... objects ... verb

So Serva in mortario allium et salem miscet is a very normal Latin order.

But Latin could rearrange the words for emphasis, for example:

• Allium et salem serva in mortario miscet
• In mortario serva allium et salem miscet

The core meaning stays the same because the case endings still show what each word is doing.

Et means and, and here it joins the two direct objects:

• allium et salem = garlic and salt

Both are things that the servant mixes.

Classical Latin has no definite or indefinite article like English the or a/an.

So:

• serva can mean a female slave or the female slave
• mortario can mean in a mortar or in the mortar

Which one sounds best depends on the context and the translation choice.

Because its ending and the preposition show a different job.

• mortario is ablative singular
• it follows in
• together they make a prepositional phrase: in mortario

The direct objects are the accusative nouns:

• allium
• salem

So the structure is:

• Serva = subject
• in mortario = where the action happens
• allium et salem = direct objects
• miscet = verb

A good way to break it down is:

• Serva = subject
• in mortario = prepositional phrase showing place
• allium et salem = direct objects
• miscet = verb

So the sentence means literally something like:

• The female slave mixes garlic and salt in a mortar

This is a useful example of how Latin often marks meaning with endings rather than strict word order.