Postquam scutellae lavatae sunt, serva eas in armario ponit.

Postquam means after. It introduces a temporal clause, a clause that tells us when something happens.

So in this sentence:

Postquam scutellae lavatae sunt
= After the dishes/bowls have been washed

This sets the time for the main action:

serva eas in armario ponit
= the maid puts them in the cupboard

Scutellae is nominative plural.

It is nominative because it is the subject of lavatae sunt in the subordinate clause:

• scutellae lavatae sunt = the bowls/dishes were washed or have been washed

It is plural because there is more than one bowl/dish.

A learner might first think scutellae could be genitive singular or dative singular, since first-declension endings can overlap, but here the verb sunt is plural, so scutellae must be nominative plural.

Lavatae sunt is the perfect passive.

It is made of:

• lavatae = the perfect passive participle, feminine plural
• sunt = they are / they have been

Together, it means:

• have been washed
• or in some contexts were washed

This is passive because the dishes are receiving the action, not doing it.

Compare:

• scutellae lavant = the bowls wash (not sensible here)
• aliquis scutellas lavat = someone washes the bowls
• scutellae lavatae sunt = the bowls have been washed

Because it agrees with scutellae.

Lavatae is a participle, and participles in Latin behave like adjectives. That means they must agree with the noun they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• scutellae is feminine plural nominative
• so the participle must also be feminine plural nominative
• therefore: lavatae

If the noun were masculine plural, you would expect lavati.
If it were neuter plural, lavata.

Here serva is nominative singular, so it is the subject of ponit.

Serva means slave woman, maid, or female servant, depending on context.

The ending -a in a first-declension noun is very often nominative singular, and here the sentence structure makes that clear:

• serva = the maid
• ponit = puts

So: serva ... ponit = the maid puts ...

It is not the object because the object is eas, which is in the accusative plural.

Eas means them and is the feminine accusative plural form of the pronoun is, ea, id.

It refers back to scutellae.

Why feminine plural?

• scutellae is feminine plural
• the pronoun referring to it must match in gender and number
• since it is the direct object of ponit, it must be in the accusative
• therefore: eas

So:

• eae = they, those women/things (feminine nominative plural)
• eas = them (feminine accusative plural)

Because ponit usually needs something that is being placed.

Serva in armario ponit by itself would mean:

• the maid puts [something] in the cupboard

But Latin often makes the object explicit if it matters. Here eas clearly tells us that what the maid is putting away is the dishes/bowls mentioned earlier.

So eas helps avoid ambiguity and links the second clause back to scutellae.

Armario is ablative singular.

It is used with in to show location:

• in armario = in the cupboard / in the cabinet

A very important Latin distinction is:

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

So:

• in armarium = into the cupboard
• in armario = in the cupboard

In this sentence, the action is often expressed in English as puts them in the cupboard, which sounds like motion into it. But Latin commonly uses ponere in + ablative for placing something in a location. Learners should simply note that in armario here is idiomatic and means where the items end up.

Because the two verbs express different kinds of time.

• lavatae sunt shows an action that is already completed: have been washed
• ponit gives the main action: puts

So the sense is: After the dishes have been washed, the maid puts them in the cupboard.

Latin often uses the perfect in a postquam clause to mark the earlier completed action. The main verb can still be present if the sentence is describing a habitual action, a general process, or a present-time sequence.

So the combination is not strange:

• first action completed
• second action happens after it

Either can be correct depending on context.

Grammatically, lavatae sunt is the perfect passive, and in English that may be rendered as:

• have been washed
• were washed

In this particular sentence, have been washed often works well because the washing is completed before the maid puts them away.

So:

• After the bowls have been washed, the maid puts them in the cupboard is a very natural translation.

But in a past narrative, were washed might also make sense.

Scutella usually refers to a small dish, bowl, or plate-like dish. The exact English word depends on context.

So scutellae could be translated as:

• bowls
• dishes
• sometimes plates

A learner should not worry too much about forcing one exact English word every time. The main idea is that these are items of tableware.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin uses endings to show grammatical function.

English relies heavily on position:

• The maid puts them in the cupboard

Latin can move elements around more freely:

• serva eas in armario ponit
• eas serva in armario ponit
• in armario eas serva ponit

All of these could be understandable, though they may have slightly different emphasis.

In your sentence, the order is very natural:

1. the time clause first: Postquam scutellae lavatae sunt
2. then the main clause: serva eas in armario ponit

Yes:

• Postquam — conjunction, after
• scutellae — noun, nominative plural feminine, subject of lavatae sunt
• lavatae — perfect passive participle of lavo, nominative plural feminine, agreeing with scutellae
• sunt — verb, 3rd person plural present of sum, used with the participle to form the perfect passive
• serva — noun, nominative singular feminine, subject of ponit
• eas — pronoun, accusative plural feminine, direct object of ponit, referring to scutellae
• in — preposition
• armario — noun, ablative singular neuter, object of in, meaning in the cupboard/cabinet
• ponit — verb, 3rd person singular present active of pono, meaning puts

You know mainly from context and agreement.

Eas is feminine plural, and the most obvious feminine plural noun already mentioned is scutellae. Latin often uses pronouns this way to refer back to something already introduced.

So the sentence works like this:

• mention the bowls/dishes first
• then refer back to them with eas = them

This is a very common pattern in Latin and in English.

The sentence has two parts:

1. Postquam scutellae lavatae sunt
   = subordinate temporal clause
   = After the dishes have been washed

2. serva eas in armario ponit
   = main clause
   = the maid puts them in the cupboard

So the overall structure is:

After X happens, Y happens.

That is a very common Latin sentence pattern and a useful one to learn early.