Lucia hanc sententiam rectius transfert quam Marcus.

Lucia is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case. It is a first-declension noun, and Lucia is its nominative singular form.

So here, Lucia is the person doing the action of transfert.

They are in the accusative because they form the direct object of transfert.

• sententiam = sentence / meaning / thought, accusative singular
• hanc = this, accusative singular feminine

Since hanc modifies sententiam, it has to agree with it in:

• gender: feminine
• number: singular
• case: accusative

So hanc sententiam means this sentence as the thing being translated.

Because hanc is the accusative singular feminine form of hic, haec, hoc.

Here is the key point:

• haec = nominative singular feminine, or nominative/accusative plural neuter
• hanc = accusative singular feminine

Since sententiam is feminine singular accusative, the demonstrative must match it: hanc.

Rectius is the comparative adverb of recte.

• recte = correctly
• rectius = more correctly

It modifies the verb transfert, not a noun. So it tells us how Lucia translates.

A native English speaker might be tempted to think of better, and that is often a natural translation here. Grammatically, though, Latin is using the comparative of correctly.

Because it describes the action of translating, not a person or a thing.

In this sentence:

• Lucia = person
• sententiam = thing
• transfert = action
• rectius = tells us how the action is done

So Latin uses an adverb: rectius = more correctly.

If it were an adjective, it would have to agree with a noun, but rectius here does not agree with Lucia or sententiam.

Transfert is:

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

So it means he/she translates or is translating, depending on context.

The subject is Lucia, so here it means Lucia translates.

It comes from transferre, which means to carry across and, by extension, to translate.

This verb is a compound of fero (I carry / bear), so its forms can look a little unusual. Some principal parts are:

• transfero
• transferre
• transtuli
• translatum

So transfert literally has the structure trans- + fert.

Because Latin often leaves out words that are easily understood from context. This is called ellipsis.

So:

• Lucia hanc sententiam rectius transfert quam Marcus

really means:

• Lucia hanc sententiam rectius transfert quam Marcus transfert

English does the same kind of thing:

• Lucia translates this sentence more correctly than Marcus.

We understand than Marcus does even though does may be omitted.

Because Marcus is understood as the subject of the omitted verb.

The full sense is:

• quam Marcus transfert

Since Marcus would be the subject of transfert, it stays in the nominative.

This is an important difference from informal English, where people often say than him. Latin usually reflects the underlying grammar of the full clause more clearly.

Grammatically, rectius compares the action performed by Lucia with the action performed by Marcus.

In other words:

• Lucia translates this sentence more correctly
• than Marcus translates it

So the comparison is between how Lucia translates and how Marcus translates.

Not really. Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

This sentence is arranged as:

• Lucia — subject
• hanc sententiam — object
• rectius — adverb
• transfert — verb
• quam Marcus — comparison

A very common feature of Latin is that the verb often comes later in the sentence than it would in English.

So while English strongly prefers something like Lucia translates this sentence more correctly than Marcus, Latin can arrange the parts more freely because the endings show their roles.

Yes, in principle. Because the case endings make the syntax clear, Latin can move words around for emphasis or style.

For example, these would still be understood with basically the same meaning:

• Hanc sententiam Lucia rectius transfert quam Marcus.
• Lucia rectius hanc sententiam transfert quam Marcus.

However, word order can affect emphasis. The original sentence is a normal, clear arrangement with no especially dramatic emphasis.