Translating sentences: reading by the endings

If you translate a Latin sentence in the order it is written, you stumble. Latin often puts the most important word first and the verb last. The endings say who does what, not the order.

With a fixed plan it always works: verb, subject, direct object, the rest. Then Lupum puerī in silvā vīdērunt simply becomes: the boys have seen a wolf in the forest. You will use that plan in every Latin lesson, right up to your final year.