Avia puellam blande consolatur.

Because avia is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject of a sentence in Latin.

• avia = grandmother
• nominative singular ending: -a

So avia is the person doing the action.

The ending -am shows that puellam is accusative singular. The accusative case is commonly used for the direct object, the person or thing receiving the action.

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

So in this sentence, the grandmother is comforting the girl.

This is because consolatur is from a deponent verb.

A deponent verb:

• uses passive-looking forms
• but has an active meaning

The dictionary form is consolor, consolari, consolatus sum, meaning to comfort / console.

So:

• consolatur literally looks like is comforted
• but actually means comforts or is comforting

This is a very common thing for Latin learners to ask, because it feels strange at first.

consolatur is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• indicative mood
• from the deponent verb consolor

So it means:

• he/she comforts
• in this sentence: she comforts, because avia is feminine singular

blande is an adverb, not an adjective.

It modifies the verb consolatur and tells us how the grandmother comforts the girl:

• blande = gently, kindly, soothingly

Because it is an adverb, it does not change form to match avia or puellam.

That is why we have:

• adjective: blandus, blanda, blandum
• adverb: blande

Latin normally has no definite article and no indefinite article.

So Latin often leaves words like:

• the
• a
• an

unstated.

That means avia can mean:

• grandmother
• the grandmother
• sometimes even a grandmother

And puellam can mean:

• the girl
• a girl

The exact English choice depends on context.

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

In this sentence:

• avia = subject
• puellam = object
• blande = adverb
• consolatur = verb

So even if the order changed, the basic meaning would stay the same, for example:

• Avia puellam blande consolatur
• Puellam avia blande consolatur
• Avia blande puellam consolatur

All of these still mean roughly The grandmother gently comforts the girl, though the emphasis may shift.

Latin often puts the verb near the end, as this sentence does.

Its basic meaning is grandmother, and that is the normal meaning a learner should take here.

In some contexts, Latin family words can be used a little more loosely, but in a simple sentence like this, avia should be understood straightforwardly as grandmother.

The form avia is nominative singular.

If it were plural, it would usually be:

• aviae = grandmothers or the grandmothers

So:

• avia consolatur = the grandmother comforts
• aviae consolantur = the grandmothers comfort

Both the noun ending and the verb ending help show the number.

The ending -tur is a 3rd person singular present ending in the passive/deponent set of endings.

For a normal active verb, you might expect -t:

• amat = he/she loves

But for a deponent verb like consolor, Latin uses passive-looking endings:

• consolatur = he/she comforts

So the -tur ending is one of the clues that the verb is deponent.

It describes the action, not the grandmother herself.

So:

• blande consolatur = comforts gently

If Latin wanted to describe the grandmother as gentle or kind, it would use an adjective agreeing with avia, such as blanda avia.

So compare:

• blanda avia = the gentle grandmother
• avia blande consolatur = the grandmother comforts gently

Yes. The Latin present tense can often be translated in more than one natural English way, depending on context.

So consolatur may be rendered as:

• comforts
• is comforting
• does comfort

In a simple sentence like this, comforts is usually the most straightforward translation.

A learner might pronounce it roughly like this in a classroom-style Latin pronunciation:

AH-wee-ah pwell-lahm BLAHN-day kon-soh-LAH-toor

A few helpful points:

• v is often pronounced like w in restored classical pronunciation
• ae is not in this sentence, but pu in puellam begins with a real p
• blande has two syllables: blan-de
• consolatur has four syllables: con-so-la-tur

Pronunciation conventions can vary depending on whether you are using Classical or Ecclesiastical Latin.