Mater stolam relictam in sella invenit.

Mater is in the nominative singular, which is the normal case for the subject of the sentence. It also matches the verb invenit, which is third person singular: she found. So mater = mother is the one doing the action.

Also, this is a useful reminder that not all Latin nominative singular nouns have obvious endings like -a or -us. Mater is a third-declension noun.

Because relictam goes with stolam.

• stolam = accusative singular feminine
• relictam = accusative singular feminine

In Latin, adjectives and participles agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case. So if stolam is accusative singular feminine, relictam must match it.

This tells you that relictam describes stolam.

Relictam is the perfect passive participle of relinquere, meaning to leave.

So relictam means something like:

• left
• having been left

In this sentence it works like a descriptive word attached to stolam: the dress left on the chair.

A participle is partly like a verb and partly like an adjective. It has verbal meaning, but grammatically it behaves like an adjective.

Because in takes the ablative when it means in or on in the sense of location.

So:

• in sella = on the chair / in the chair depending on context
• here it means on the chair

Compare this with in + accusative, which usually shows movement into or onto something.

So:

• in sellam = onto the chair
• in sella = on the chair

Most naturally, it goes with relictam/stolam: the dress left on the chair.

So the sense is: Mother found the dress [which had been] left on the chair.

In theory, Latin word groups can sometimes be interpreted more than one way, and in sella could also be understood with invenit as found on the chair. But in this sentence, the most natural reading is that the dress was the thing on the chair.

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

So mater can mean:

• mother
• the mother
• a mother

and stolam can mean:

• a dress
• the dress

You decide from context which English article is best. That is why translations can vary a little even when the Latin is the same.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin shows grammatical function mainly through endings, not position.

Here:

• mater is the subject because it is nominative
• stolam relictam is the object phrase because it is accusative
• invenit is the verb

So Latin can move these parts around more freely without losing the basic meaning.

This order, Mater stolam relictam in sella invenit, is perfectly natural. It puts the verb at the end, which is very common in Latin.

Yes, often it could. For example:

• Mater in sella stolam relictam invenit
• Stolam relictam in sella mater invenit

The basic meaning would stay similar because the endings still show what each word is doing.

However, a different order can change emphasis or style. Latin authors often move words around to highlight certain ideas.

Here it is understood as perfect tense: found.

So:

• invenit = she found

A learner should know that in ordinary spelling, invenit can look the same as the present form. In careful discussion of vowel length, the perfect is invēnit, while the present has different vowel quantity. But most printed Latin does not mark long vowels, so you usually decide from context and meaning. Since the meaning has already been given here, the intended tense is perfect.

It is both. That is exactly what a participle is.

As an adjective, it agrees with stolam in gender, number, and case.

As a verbal form, it still carries the idea of the action to leave. So stolam relictam does not just mean a random quality like red dress; it means a dress that had been left.

That verbal force is an important part of the sentence.

Because grammatical declension and natural gender are not the same thing.

Mater refers to a female person, so it is naturally feminine. But its forms belong to the third declension, not the first.

So a noun can be:

• feminine in meaning and gender
• but third declension in form

That is completely normal in Latin.

A stola is a long garment associated especially with women in Roman dress. In many beginner translations it may simply be rendered as dress or robe.

So stolam is the accusative singular form of stola, the thing that mother found.