Soror rosam rubram et violam albam in aqua ponit, quia odor earum suavis est.

Because both phrases are in the accusative singular feminine.

They are the direct objects of ponit (puts/places), so Latin puts them in the accusative:

• rosa → rosam
• viola → violam

The adjectives must agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case, so:

• rubra → rubram
• alba → albam

So:

• rosam rubram = a red rose
• violam albam = a white violet

Because soror is the subject of the sentence, so it stays in the nominative singular.

The subject is the person or thing doing the action:

• Soror = the sister
• ponit = puts

So soror is the one doing the placing.

Also, soror is a third-declension noun, so its nominative singular form does not have the -a ending that many first-declension feminine nouns have.

Yes, the order could be different.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show which words belong together. In this sentence:

• rosam goes with rubram
• violam goes with albam

because the endings match in case, number, and gender.

So these would still be understandable:

• rubram rosam
• albam violam

Latin often places adjectives either before or after the noun, depending on style, emphasis, and habit.

In aqua means in the water.

After in, the ablative usually expresses location:

• in aqua = in the water

This is why aqua is ablative singular.

A beginner often learns:

• in + ablative = in/on (location)
• in + accusative = into/onto (motion toward)

That is a very useful rule. In a sentence like this, in aqua presents the water as the place where the flowers are placed. If you wanted to stress movement into the water more strongly, Latin can also use in aquam.

Ponit is:

• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood
• third person singular

It comes from pono, ponere, posui, positum = to put, place.

So soror ... ponit means the sister puts/places ...

Because the subject soror is singular, the verb is also singular: ponit.

Because Latin has no articles.

English distinguishes:

• the sister
• a sister

Latin usually just says soror, and the exact meaning depends on context.

The same is true for:

• rosam = a rose or the rose
• violam = a violet or the violet

So Latin leaves that distinction unstated unless context makes it clear.

Quia means because.

It introduces a clause giving the reason:

• Soror rosam rubram et violam albam in aqua ponit = the main statement
• quia odor earum suavis est = the reason why

So quia connects the two parts just like English because.

Because Latin is talking about the scent of them, taken as a single idea.

So:

• odor = scent/fragrance (singular)
• earum = of them / their

This can mean:

• the shared fragrance of the flowers
• the fragrance coming from both flowers

English can do something similar:

• their scent is sweet

Even though their refers to more than one thing, scent can still be singular.

Earum is the genitive plural feminine form of is, ea, id.

Here it means:

• of them
• their

It refers back to the two feminine nouns:

• rosam
• violam

So odor earum literally means the scent of them.

Because both antecedents are feminine singular nouns joined together, Latin uses the feminine plural form earum.

Because suus, sua, suum is reflexive and refers to the subject of its own clause.

In the clause:

• odor earum suavis est

the subject is odor, not soror, rosa, or viola.

So if Latin used suus here, it would refer back to odor itself, which is not what is meant.

To refer to the flowers, Latin uses the non-reflexive pronoun:

• earum = of them / their

This is a very common point of confusion for English speakers.

Because suavis is describing odor, which is:

• nominative
• singular
• masculine

So the adjective agrees with odor.

The structure is:

• odor ... est = the scent is
• suavis = sweet / pleasant

So odor earum suavis est means their scent is sweet.

It is joining the whole noun phrases:

• rosam rubram
• violam albam

So the sense is:

• a red rose and a white violet

not:

• a rose and a violet, both red and white

The matching endings help show the pairings:

• rosam ↔ rubram
• violam ↔ albam

Latin often puts the verb near the end of the clause, but it does not always have to.

In this sentence:

• ponit comes at the end of the main clause
• est comes at the end of the quia clause

That is very normal Latin style. But Latin word order is flexible, and endings carry much of the grammatical meaning.

So verb-final order is common, especially in simple textbook sentences, but it is not an absolute rule.

Yes, to a large extent.

Because Latin uses endings to show grammatical roles, many rearrangements are possible. For example, the sentence could be reordered without losing the basic meaning.

What matters most is recognizing the forms:

• soror = subject
• rosam rubram and violam albam = direct objects
• in aqua = prepositional phrase
• quia = introduces the reason
• odor earum = subject + dependent genitive in the second clause
• suavis est = predicate

Word order in Latin often affects emphasis more than basic meaning.