Nutrix infantis sudarium madidum mutat et ei aliud mundum imponit.

Infantis is genitive singular of infans, infantis, and it means of the infant / the baby's.

So:

• infantis sudarium = the infant's diaper/cloth
• literally, the cloth of the infant

A native English speaker may expect something like to the infant, but that idea appears later with ei. Here, infantis is showing possession, not the person affected by the action.

The subject is nutrix, meaning nurse or nursemaid.

It is nominative singular, because it is the person doing the actions:

• mutat = changes
• imponit = puts on

So nutrix is the one who changes the wet diaper and puts on another clean one.

Nutrix is a third-declension noun. Its nominative singular does not end in -a like many first-declension feminine nouns, so it can look unusual at first.

They all have neuter singular accusative forms here.

In the first clause

• sudarium = the direct object of mutat
• madidum agrees with sudarium

So:

• sudarium madidum = the wet diaper/cloth

In the second clause

• aliud mundum is also neuter singular accusative
• it is the direct object of imponit
• the noun sudarium is understood but not repeated

So:

• aliud mundum = another clean one
• literally, another clean [sudarium]

In Latin, adjectives and adjective-like words must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.

Because Latin often omits a noun when it is easily understood from context.

Here, aliud mundum means:

• another clean [sudarium]

The noun sudarium has already appeared, so Latin does not need to repeat it.

This is very common. English does something similar with one:

• a wet diaper ... another clean one

Latin can simply use the adjective/pronoun without adding a separate word for one.

Ei is dative singular of the pronoun is, ea, id.

Here it means:

• to him
• to her
• or more naturally in English, on him / on the baby

It refers to the infant.

Latin uses the dative with imponere for the person something is placed on or upon.

So:

• ei aliud mundum imponit = she puts another clean one on him/her

Imponit comes from impono, imponere, meaning put on, place on, set upon.

A very common pattern is:

• thing placed in the accusative
• person or thing receiving it in the dative

So in this sentence:

• aliud mundum = the thing being put on
• ei = the person it is put on

That is why Latin does not use a preposition like English on here.

A literal breakdown would be:

• she places another clean one upon him/her

In this sentence, mutat means changes in the sense of changes out or replaces the wet diaper.

Latin mutare can mean change, and in context it often has the practical meaning:

• remove the old one
• replace it with another

So the direct object is the thing being changed:

• sudarium madidum mutat = she changes the wet diaper

That is very close to English, even though English speakers may sometimes think more in terms of changing the baby. Latin focuses on the diaper as the object.

That is a very common confusion.

There are two different words involved:

1. mundus as a noun can mean world
2. mundus, -a, -um as an adjective can mean clean, neat, or elegant

Here, mundum is the neuter accusative singular adjective, agreeing with the understood noun sudarium.

So:

• aliud mundum = another clean one

It does not mean another world in this sentence.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

English depends heavily on word order:

• The nurse changes the diaper

Latin can move words around more freely because case endings already tell you what each word is doing.

In this sentence:

• Nutrix is clearly the subject
• sudarium madidum is the object of mutat
• ei is dative with imponit
• aliud mundum is the object of imponit

So even if the order feels unusual, the endings keep the meaning clear.

This particular order is quite natural:

• possessor first: infantis
• noun with adjective: sudarium madidum
• then the second action: et ei aliud mundum imponit

Because Latin has no articles.

There is no separate word for:

• the
• a
• an

So Latin simply says:

• nutrix = nurse / the nurse
• sudarium = a diaper / the diaper
• infantis = of an infant / of the infant

English has to choose the or a/an when translating, but Latin leaves that to the context.

In this sentence, English naturally uses:

• the nurse
• the infant's wet diaper
• another clean one

We know because of agreement.

First clause

• sudarium = neuter singular accusative
• madidum = neuter singular accusative

So madidum must describe sudarium.

Second clause

• the understood noun is again sudarium
• aliud and mundum are both neuter singular accusative

So they go with that same understood noun.

This is one of the big advantages of Latin endings: even when the word order is flexible or a noun is omitted, the agreement helps you see which words belong together.