Serva tunicam lavatam in armario suspendit.

Serva is nominative singular. The nominative case is normally used for the subject of the sentence, so serva is the one doing the action.

It is the nominative singular form of serva, meaning female slave, maidservant, or simply maid, depending on context.

Tunicam is accusative singular of tunica. The accusative case is commonly used for the direct object, so this is the thing being hung up.

So:

• serva = the one doing the action
• tunicam = the thing affected by the action

Lavatam is a perfect passive participle from lavare, meaning washed.

Here it is not the main verb. It works like an adjective describing tunicam:

• tunicam lavatam = the washed tunic or the tunic that has been washed

A learner might first expect lavatam to mean something like she washed, but it does not. It is a participle, not a finite verb.

Because lavatam agrees with tunicam in gender, number, and case.

Both are:

• feminine
• singular
• accusative

This agreement shows that lavatam is describing tunicam.

It is describing the tunic, not forming part of the main verb.

The main verb is suspendit.
The phrase tunicam lavatam is a noun phrase meaning the washed tunic.

If Latin wanted to say the tunic was washed, you would expect something like tunica lavata est instead. That would be a full passive verb phrase.

Because armario is ablative singular, and after in the ablative usually indicates location:

• in armario = in the wardrobe/cabinet

By contrast, in + accusative often shows motion into something:

• in armarium = into the wardrobe/cabinet

In this sentence the Latin is presenting the wardrobe as the place where the tunic is hung.

This is a very common beginner question, because suspendit can be ambiguous.

It can be:

• present tense: she hangs
• perfect tense: she hung or she has hung

Latin sometimes has forms that look identical in the present and perfect. Usually the context tells you which meaning is intended. If your book or exercise already gives the meaning, that solves the ambiguity for this sentence.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show each word’s role in the sentence.

English depends heavily on position:

• The maid hangs the tunic

Latin can move words around more easily because:

• serva shows the subject
• tunicam shows the object
• armario shows the object of in

So Serva tunicam lavatam in armario suspendit is perfectly normal Latin. The sense comes from the forms, not just from the order.

In Latin, adjectives can come before or after the noun they modify. Position is more flexible than in English.

So both of these would be understandable:

• tunicam lavatam
• lavatam tunicam

The important thing is not the position, but the agreement in gender, number, and case. Still, putting the participle after the noun is very natural Latin.

Classical Latin does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So:

• serva can mean a maid or the maid
• tunicam can mean a tunic or the tunic

You decide from context which is more natural in English.

Yes. Both can express the basic idea of the Latin participle.

Depending on context, tunicam lavatam could be understood as:

• the washed tunic
• the tunic that has been washed
• the tunic having been washed

In smooth English, washed tunic or tunic that has been washed is usually the most natural.