Serva puero aquam tepidam affert.

Because serva is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject of a sentence.

Here, serva means slave woman, maidservant, or female servant. The ending -a shows it is nominative singular for a first-declension noun.

So serva is the one doing the action of affert.

Because puero is in the dative singular, not the accusative.

The dative case often marks the indirect object: the person to whom something is given, shown, said, or brought.

So in this sentence:

• puero = to the boy
• aquam tepidam = the thing being brought

That is why puero is not the direct object.

Because aquam tepidam is the direct object of affert.

The verb affert means brings, so it takes:

• a person receiving the thing: puero in the dative
• the thing brought: aquam tepidam in the accusative

Also, adjectives in Latin must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

So:

• aquam = accusative singular feminine
• tepidam = accusative singular feminine

They match because tepidam describes aquam.

We know from agreement.

Latin adjectives agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case. Here:

• aquam is feminine, singular, accusative
• tepidam is feminine, singular, accusative

So they naturally go together: warm water.

Even if the word order changed, the matching endings would still show that tepidam describes aquam.

Because Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

In English, we normally say warm water. In Latin, an adjective can come:

• before the noun
• after the noun
• sometimes separated from the noun

So aquam tepidam is perfectly normal Latin. It still means warm water.

Latin relies more on endings than on word order to show the grammatical relationships.

Affert is:

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

So it means he/she/it brings.

In this sentence, since the subject is serva, it means the female servant brings.

The -t ending is the normal sign of third person singular in the present tense.

It comes from afferō, afferre, attulī, allātum, meaning to bring to, to carry to, or simply to bring.

This is a compound of ad- + ferō.

In the present tense, forms of afferō include:

• afferō = I bring
• affers = you bring
• affert = he/she brings
• afferimus = we bring
• affertis = you all bring
• afferunt = they bring

So affert is the expected present singular form.

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

So serva can mean:

• a female servant
• the female servant

And puero can mean:

• to a boy
• to the boy

And aquam tepidam can mean:

• warm water
• the warm water
• some warm water

The exact choice in English depends on the context.

Yes. Latin word order is flexible because the endings show the roles of the words.

For example, these could still mean essentially the same thing:

• Serva puero aquam tepidam affert.
• Puero serva aquam tepidam affert.
• Aquam tepidam serva puero affert.
• Affert serva puero aquam tepidam.

The differences would usually be about emphasis or style, not basic meaning.

Because many Latin verbs can take a dative indirect object directly, without a preposition.

With bring, Latin commonly uses:

• dative for the person receiving the thing
• accusative for the thing brought

So puero means to the boy.

Latin could use a preposition in some situations, but here the simple dative is the normal choice.

Yes. They are the feminine and masculine forms of the same basic noun.

• servus = male slave, male servant
• serva = female slave, female servant

So serva is the feminine form.

This is useful because the sentence shows agreement between the female subject and the third-person singular verb, even though the verb form itself does not separately mark grammatical gender.

Because Latin endings tell us who is doing what.

• serva is nominative: the subject
• puero is dative: the indirect object
• aquam tepidam is accusative: the direct object
• affert is singular: brings

So the grammar clearly gives:

• serva = the one who brings
• puero = the recipient
• aquam tepidam = the thing brought

In English, word order does most of that work. In Latin, case endings do it.

Not necessarily. Tepidus, tepida, tepidum usually means warm, lukewarm, or tepid, rather than hot.

So aquam tepidam suggests water that is pleasantly warm or only moderately warm, not boiling or very hot.

That is a vocabulary nuance worth noticing, since English warm can cover a wider range depending on context.