Nova collega magistrae hodie ad scholam venit et discipulis fabulam brevem legit.

Because nova collega is in the nominative singular, which is the normal case for the subject of a clause.

You can also see agreement:

• nova = nominative singular feminine
• collega = nominative singular
• venit and legit = 3rd person singular verbs

So the sentence is about one person, and that person is nova collega.

Not automatically. Collega is a first-declension noun, so its form looks like many feminine nouns, but its natural gender can be male or female depending on the person.

In this sentence, the adjective nova shows that the colleague is female, because it is feminine singular.

So:

• nova collega = a female new colleague
• novus collega = a male new colleague

Here magistrae is best understood as genitive singular: of the teacher.

So nova collega magistrae means something like the teacher’s new colleague or a new colleague of the teacher.

This is a good word to notice because magistrae is ambiguous in form when taken by itself. It could also be:

• dative singular
• nominative plural

But in this sentence, the genitive meaning makes the most sense.

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

So a Latin noun like collega can mean:

• a colleague
• the colleague

The context or the translation tells you which one is meant in English.

Because ad is the preposition used for movement toward or to a place, and it takes the accusative case.

So:

• ad scholam = to the school

Here:

• scholam is accusative singular of schola

A useful contrast:

• ad scholam = to the school
• in schola = in/at the school

So Latin is marking motion toward the school, not location inside it.

Discipulis is dative plural, and it is the indirect object.

With legit, the idea is:

• she read something
• to the students

So:

• fabulam brevem = the thing being read
• discipulis = the people receiving it

This is a very common Latin pattern:

• aliquid alicui legere = to read something to someone

Because it is the direct object of legit: it tells you what she read.

So:

• fabulam = accusative singular of fabula
• brevem = accusative singular feminine of brevis

The adjective brevem agrees with fabulam in:

• gender
• number
• case

That agreement is one of the main clues that those two words belong together.

Because Latin adjective placement is much more flexible than English.

Both of these are possible:

• fabulam brevem
• brevem fabulam

In many cases, the difference is slight or just stylistic. A learner should not assume that an adjective must come before the noun, as it usually does in English.

The key thing is the agreement in form, not the position.

The subject of legit is still nova collega.

Latin often does not repeat the subject if it stays the same. So after et, the sentence simply continues with the same person doing the next action.

That is why the structure is:

• nova collega ... venit
• et ... legit

No new nominative noun appears, so the most natural reading is that the same person both came and read.

In ordinary spelling without macrons, both forms can be ambiguous:

• venit can be comes or came
• legit can be reads or read

If macrons are written, the perfect forms are distinguished:

• vēnit = came
• lēgit = read

Without those marks, you use context or the supplied meaning to decide. Since the meaning has already been shown to the learner, that tells you how to take them here.

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

So English relies heavily on position:

• subject before verb
• object after verb

Latin relies much more on:

• case endings
• agreement
• context

This sentence has a perfectly natural order, but many parts could move around without changing the basic meaning. For example, hodie could appear in a different place, and fabulam brevem could also be rearranged.

So when reading Latin, it is usually better to ask:

• What case is this word?
• What does it agree with?
• What verb does it belong to?

rather than:

• Where is it placed?