Mater respondet: “Forsitan, si imber non cadet.”

Respondet is the 3rd person singular present active indicative of respondēre, meaning to answer or to reply.

So:

• respondet = he/she/it replies or is replying

Here it refers to mater, so it means mother replies.

Forsitan is an adverb meaning perhaps or maybe. It affects the whole reply, showing uncertainty.

Latin often puts words like forsitan near the beginning of a sentence, but its position is fairly flexible.

Si means if. It introduces a conditional clause.

So si imber non cadet is the if-clause:

• if rain does not fall
• more naturally in English, if it doesn’t rain

Latin often expresses weather with a real noun, not just a dummy subject like English it.

So:

• imber = rain, rainstorm, or shower
• imber cadit literally means rain falls

English usually says it rains, but Latin can say something more like rain falls.

Imber is nominative singular, because it is the subject of cadet.

In other words, the rain is the thing that is falling, so it takes the nominative case.

Cadet is the 3rd person singular future active indicative of cadere, meaning to fall.

So:

• cadet = he/she/it will fall

With imber, it means rain will fall or more naturally it will rain.

This is a very common question. Latin and English handle future conditions differently.

In Latin, a future condition often uses the future indicative:

• si imber non cadet = literally if rain will not fall

But natural English usually uses the present tense after if:

• if it doesn’t rain

So the Latin future cadet is completely normal, even though English translates it with a present form.

Non is the standard Latin word for not. Here it negates the verb cadet.

So:

• non cadet = will not fall

Putting non directly before the verb is very common and straightforward.

Not really, if taken by itself. It is elliptical, which means some words are left out because they are understood from the context.

It is like saying in English:

• Perhaps, if it doesn’t rain.

That is not a full sentence on its own either, but in conversation it is perfectly natural if everyone already knows what is being discussed, such as:

• Will we go tomorrow?
• Perhaps, if it doesn’t rain.

So the missing main idea is understood from the previous context.

No. Latin word order is much freer than English word order.

This sentence uses a very natural arrangement:

• Mater respondet first
• then forsitan
• then the if-clause

But Latin could move words around for emphasis without changing the basic meaning. For example, putting non or imber in a different position could add emphasis, though the given order is the most straightforward for a learner.