Mercatrix quaerit utrum merces ex Asia cariores sint quam ex Graecia.

Mercatrix means female merchant or businesswoman. It is a noun in the nominative singular, so it is the subject of quaerit.

A learner may notice that it ends in -trix, which is a common feminine ending in Latin for someone who does an action. Compare English words like executrix.

So here:

• mercatrix = the merchant / female merchant
• it is the person doing the asking

Quaerit is the 3rd person singular present active indicative of quaerere.

Here it means she asks.

Depending on context, quaerere can also mean things like:

• to ask
• to seek
• to look for
• to inquire

In this sentence, because it introduces an indirect yes/no question, quaerit is best understood as asks or wants to know.

Utrum introduces an indirect yes/no question.

So the structure is:

• Mercatrix quaerit = the merchant asks
• utrum ... sint ... = whether ... are ...

In English, after verbs like ask, wonder, or inquire, we often use whether:

• She asks whether the goods are more expensive...

That is exactly what utrum is doing here.

This is one of the most important grammar points in the sentence.

Sint is the present subjunctive of esse (to be), while sunt is the present indicative.

Latin normally uses the subjunctive in indirect questions, and this clause introduced by utrum is an indirect question:

• utrum merces ex Asia cariores sint quam ex Graecia

So sint is used because the sentence is not a direct statement like:

• Merces ex Asia cariores sunt. = The goods from Asia are more expensive.

Instead, it is part of what someone is asking:

• She asks whether the goods from Asia are more expensive than those from Greece.

Yes, merx is the singular form, meaning a good, an article of merchandise, or merchandise in a general sense.

Merces here is the nominative plural:

• merx = one good / one item of merchandise
• merces = goods / wares / merchandise items

So in this sentence, the merchant is asking about goods in the plural, not a single item.

A beginner may also know merces as a noun meaning wages/pay/reward, but here the meaning is clearly goods/wares, from merx, mercis.

Cariores is the comparative adjective meaning more expensive or dearer.

It agrees with merces, which is plural, so the adjective must also be plural.

The base adjective is:

• carus, cara, carum = dear, costly, expensive

Its comparative is:

• carior (singular masculine/feminine)
• carius (singular neuter)
• cariores (plural masculine/feminine)

Since merces is a feminine plural noun, cariores is the correct agreeing form.

Quam is used to introduce the second part of a comparison, just like than in English.

So:

• cariores ... quam ... = more expensive ... than ...

In this sentence:

• cariores sint quam ex Graecia = are more expensive than [those] from Greece

So quam is simply the normal word for than after a comparative adjective.

Latin often leaves out a word when it is easily understood from context.

Here the full idea is:

• utrum merces ex Asia cariores sint quam merces ex Graecia

But Latin does not need to repeat merces, because the comparison is obvious. English does the same thing:

• whether goods from Asia are more expensive than goods from Greece
• or more naturally: than those from Greece

So quam ex Graecia means:

• than [goods] from Greece

This omission is very common in both Latin and English.

Both Asia and Graecia are in the ablative case because they follow the preposition ex.

• ex Asia = from Asia
• ex Graecia = from Greece

The preposition ex (or e) takes the ablative and usually means:

• out of
• from

Here it indicates place of origin or source.

Latin can sometimes express place relations without a preposition, but that usually happens with certain special categories, especially:

• names of cities
• names of small islands
• a few special words like domo

But Asia and Graecia are larger regions, so Latin normally uses a preposition:

• ex Asia
• ex Graecia

That is why the sentence includes ex both times.

The word order is fairly natural, but Latin word order is more flexible than English word order.

This sentence is arranged as:

• Mercatrix = subject
• quaerit = main verb
• utrum ... sint ... quam ... = indirect question

Within the indirect question, Latin places the comparative adjective cariores before sint, which is very normal.

A more expanded version in English order might look like:

• Mercatrix quaerit utrum merces ex Asia sint cariores quam merces ex Graecia.

That would still be understandable Latin, though the original wording is smoother and more idiomatic.

So the word order matters less for grammar than in English, because the endings show the relationships between the words.

Sometimes Latin can omit an introductory word in indirect questions, but utrum is very common when the question is specifically whether ... or not / whether ... rather than ....

In a sentence like this, utrum clearly signals that what follows is a yes/no question in reported form.

So while Latin does not always need it in every imaginable context, here it is a very natural and standard choice.

The sentence has two main parts:

1. Main clause

   • Mercatrix quaerit
   • The merchant asks

2. Indirect question

   • utrum merces ex Asia cariores sint quam ex Graecia
   • whether goods from Asia are more expensive than those from Greece

A learner should especially notice these three things:

• utrum introduces the indirect yes/no question
• sint is subjunctive because it is in an indirect question
• quam ex Graecia means than those from Greece, with merces understood

So this sentence is a good example of how Latin reports a question inside a larger sentence.