Mater quoque pollicetur se filiae librum novum daturam esse, si hodie diligenter studuerit.

Quoque means also or too.

Latin often places quoque immediately after the word it especially relates to. So Mater quoque means the mother too / the mother also.

That placement highlights mother as an additional person doing something, rather than adding emphasis to another part of the sentence.

Because pollicetur is a deponent verb.

Deponent verbs have:

• passive forms
• but active meanings

So:

• pollicetur = he/she promises not is promised

This is something learners often just have to get used to with deponent verbs.

Se is a reflexive pronoun, and it refers back to the subject of the main verb, here Mater.

So:

• Mater pollicetur se ... daturam esse = The mother promises that she herself will give ...

If Latin used eam, that would normally mean her referring to some other female, not the mother herself.

So se shows that the person who is promising and the person who will give the book are the same person.

Because this is indirect statement after pollicetur.

After verbs like say, think, promise, Latin often uses:

• an accusative subject
• plus an infinitive

Here the subject of the infinitive is se, and the infinitive is daturam esse.

More specifically:

• daturam = future active participle
• esse = to be

Together they form the future infinitive:

• daturam esse = to be going to give / will give

So the structure means:

• she promises that she will give ...

If you used dare, that would mean simply to give, not specifically will give.

Because daturam agrees with se, which refers to Mater, a feminine subject.

The future active participle must agree with the accusative subject in:

• gender
• number
• case

So here:

• se = accusative singular feminine
• therefore daturam = accusative singular feminine

If the subject were masculine, you would expect daturum.

Filiae is dative singular.

It is the indirect object, meaning to/for the daughter.

So:

• filiae librum novum dare = to give a new book to the daughter

In smoother English, this is often simply:

• to give her daughter a new book

Latin uses the dative where English often uses either:

• to her daughter or
• her daughter as an indirect object

Because it is the direct object of dare.

The thing being given is the book, so Latin puts it in the accusative:

• librum = book
• novum = new, agreeing with librum

So:

• filiae librum novum daturam esse = that she will give her daughter a new book

In this sentence, studuerit is best understood as future perfect indicative.

This is a very common pattern in Latin future conditions:

• si
  • future perfect
• main idea referring to the future

So:

• si hodie diligenter studuerit means something like
• if she studies diligently today or more literally
• if she has studied diligently today

A useful detail: the form studuerit looks the same as the perfect subjunctive, but here the context points to future perfect indicative, not subjunctive.

Latin often uses the future perfect in an if-clause when the action in that clause needs to happen before the result in the main clause.

Here the idea is:

1. the daughter studies diligently today
2. then the mother gives the book

So Latin expresses that earlier completed action with studuerit.

English often does not show this as clearly and simply says:

• if she studies diligently today

But Latin is being more precise about the sequence.

The most natural understanding is that the daughter is supposed to do the studying.

The sentence says:

• the mother promises that she will give her daughter a new book
• if today she studies diligently

Since the reward is being offered to the daughter, studuerit is most naturally understood as referring to the daughter.

Latin does not always state the subject explicitly if it can be understood from the context.

Latin often leaves out possessive words like her, his, or their when the meaning is obvious from context.

So filiae by itself can mean:

• to the daughter or, in context,
• to her daughter

Because the subject is Mater, it is natural to understand filiae as her daughter.

Because the promising happens now, while the giving is future.

So Latin separates the two time levels:

• pollicetur = she promises now
• daturam esse = that she will give later

This is very normal Latin usage. The present tense of pollicetur does not mean the giving is present; it only tells you when the promise is made.

Yes, but it is normal Latin word order rather than anything strange.

The sentence is:

• Mater quoque pollicetur
• se filiae librum novum daturam esse
• si hodie diligenter studuerit

A learner can break it up like this:

1. Mater quoque pollicetur
   = The mother also promises

2. se ... daturam esse
   = that she will give

3. filiae librum novum
   = her daughter a new book

4. si hodie diligenter studuerit
   = if she studies diligently today

Latin word order is more flexible than English, so case endings do a lot of the work that English word order does.