Quot libros magistra hodie attulit, totidem discipulis post scholam dat, ut eos legant.

It is a correlative pair:

• quot = however many / as many ... as
• totidem = the same number / just as many

So the sentence sets up a number relationship: the number of books the teacher brought matches the number of students she gives them to.

No. By itself, quot can mean how many? in a direct question. But here it is not interrogative.

Because it is paired with totidem, it works more like however many or as many as. So quot libros magistra hodie attulit means something like however many books the teacher brought today.

Because quot is indeclinable. It does not change form for case, gender, or number.

So even though libros is masculine accusative plural, quot stays quot.

The same is true of totidem: it also stays the same form.

Because libros is the direct object of attulit.

The teacher brought books, so books receives the action of the verb. In Latin, that makes it accusative.

It is also the thing understood as the object of dat later in the sentence.

Because discipulis is the indirect object with dat.

With verbs like do, dare and dat, Latin normally puts the recipient in the dative:

• dat discipulis = she gives to the students

So discipulis tells you who receives the books.

Latin often leaves out a word if it is already clear from context.

Here, after quot libros ... attulit, the reader already knows the thing being talked about is books, so dat can stand without repeating libros.

In English, we often repeat the noun or use them. Latin is more comfortable leaving it understood.

It means to the same number of students or to just as many students.

The important idea is matching number, not necessarily identity. In other words, the sentence is saying that the number of students matches the number of books.

It strongly suggests one book per student, though that is understood from the situation rather than spelled out.

Because the sentence presents two actions from different angles:

• attulit = a completed action: the teacher brought the books earlier today
• dat = a present action: she gives them after school

This is not strange in Latin. The bringing is already finished, while the giving is presented as happening now, as a general practice, or in a vivid narrative style.

So the tense difference helps show the sequence of events.

Because it is a purpose clause.

Latin commonly uses:

• ut
  • subjunctive = so that / in order that

So ut eos legant means so that they may read them or for them to read them.

The verb legant is present subjunctive because the main verb dat is present.

Eos refers to libros.

It means them, and the pronoun agrees with libros in:

• gender: masculine
• number: plural

But its case comes from its own job in the clause. Since it is the direct object of legant, it is accusative: eos.

The subject is the students.

Latin does not need to state the subject explicitly if it is clear from context. The verb ending -ant already tells you the subject is they.

So the sense is that she gives the books to the students so that the students may read them.

Not here.

Even though eos is masculine plural and could in some contexts mean them referring to male people, in this sentence it is the object of reading. What the students read is the books, not the students themselves.

Also, discipulis is dative, while eos is accusative, so eos is not simply standing in for discipulis.

Because post takes the accusative case.

So:

• post scholam = after school / after class

Here scholam is accusative singular because that is the case required by the preposition post.

Also, schola can refer not only to the school building, but also to school-time or class.

Latin word order is much more flexible because case endings show what each word is doing.

English depends heavily on word order to show subject, object, and indirect object. Latin can move words around for emphasis.

Here, putting quot early and totidem later helps highlight the number relationship:

• however many books ...
• that same number of students ...

So the order is not random; it is stylistic and emphatic.

Several English versions are possible:

• so that they may read them
• so they can read them
• for them to read

All of these express the purpose of the giving. The Latin grammar is specifically a purpose clause, even if English chooses a simpler wording.