Agricola tellurem arat.

Because agricola is a first-declension noun, and many first-declension nouns end in -a. In Latin, grammatical form and natural gender do not always match the way an English speaker might expect.

Agricola is:

• masculine in meaning: a farmer, typically male
• first declension in form: so it uses endings like other -a nouns

This is a very common point of confusion for English speakers, because -a often suggests feminine gender in Latin, but not always.

Here, agricola is in the nominative singular.

You can tell because it is the subject of the sentence: it is the person doing the action of arat.

So in Agricola tellurem arat:

• agricola = the farmer → subject → nominative
• tellurem = the earth/soil/land → direct object → accusative

Because tellurem is the accusative singular form of tellus.

The noun tellus, telluris means earth, ground, or land. Its forms change depending on its role in the sentence.

Here it is the direct object, the thing being plowed, so Latin uses the accusative case:

• nominative: tellus
• accusative: tellurem

English usually shows this by word order, but Latin often shows it by endings.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show what each word is doing.

In English, word order is very important:

• The farmer plows the land means one thing
• The land plows the farmer means something different

In Latin, the endings already tell you:

• agricola is the subject
• tellurem is the object

So all of these could mean the same thing:

• Agricola tellurem arat
• Tellurem agricola arat
• Arat agricola tellurem

The version you have is a perfectly normal Latin order, but not the only possible one.

Arat is a verb form that means he/she/it plows or is plowing, depending on context.

Its ending -t tells you it is:

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

So arat means:

• he plows
• she plows
• it plows

In this sentence, because the subject is agricola, we understand it as the farmer plows.

Latin normally has no articles.

So a noun like agricola can mean:

• a farmer
• the farmer

And tellurem can mean:

• land
• the land
• the soil
• earth, depending on context

Latin leaves this to context much more than English does.

Yes, Latin could simply say tellurem arat.

Because the ending -t in arat already tells you the subject is he/she/it, Latin often leaves the subject unstated if it is clear from context.

So:

• Agricola tellurem arat = The farmer plows the land
• Tellurem arat = He/she is plowing the land or the farmer plows the land, if the context already makes the subject clear

Latin often includes the noun or pronoun only when it wants to:

• clarify
• emphasize
• contrast

Both tellus and terra can refer to earth, ground, or land, but they are not always identical.

Very generally:

• terra is a very common word for land, earth, or country
• tellus can sound a bit more elevated, poetic, or dignified, and can also mean the earth as a whole or the ground/soil

In a simple sentence like this, either might be possible depending on the author's style and exact meaning. A learner often notices terra first because it is extremely common, but tellus is also an important Latin word.

A common classroom pronunciation would be roughly:

ah-gree-KOH-lah tel-LOO-rem AH-rat

More carefully in restored classical pronunciation:

• Agricola = ah-GREE-ko-la
• tellurem = tel-LOO-rem
• arat = AH-rat

A few useful notes:

• c is always hard, like k
• g is always hard, as in go
• r is trilled or tapped
• vowels are pronounced clearly, not reduced as much as in English

The dictionary forms are usually given like this:

• agricola, agricolae — farmer
• tellus, telluris — earth, land, ground
• aro, arare, aravi, aratum — to plow

This helps you see which form you are looking at:

• agricola comes from agricola, agricolae
• tellurem comes from tellus, telluris
• arat comes from aro

Learning to connect the form in the sentence to the dictionary form is one of the most important Latin skills.

Yes. The Latin present tense often covers both ideas.

So arat can be translated as:

• plows
• is plowing

Which English version is best depends on context:

• for a general statement: The farmer plows the land
• for an action happening now: The farmer is plowing the land

Latin does not always make that distinction as explicitly as English does.