The Ave Maria: the hour of our death

Blessed: two participles

Benedicta and benedictus are the perfect passive participle of benedico, speak well of, bless. Each agrees with its own noun, and again there is no verb:

Same word, two genders: the ending alone says who is meant.

In mulieribus is in plus the ablative plural of mulier, among women. Classical Latin would say inter mulieres; the Vulgate of Luke 1:28 copies the Greek en gynaixin. The phrase means the most blessed of women.

Fructus ventris tui is a genitive chain:

Tui is the adjective your, not the pronoun of you. Iesus then names the fruit, in the nominative.

Holy Mary, pray for us

Ora is a first-conjugation imperative, so it is the bare stem, like ama. Peccatoribus stands beside nobis in the same case: pro nobis peccatoribus, for us sinners. On its own it could be dative or ablative; the pro in front settles it.

Mater Dei gives the sense of the title the Greek Church calls Theotokos, God-bearer; the closer Latin is Dei Genetrix.

The hour of our death

The last line is the best one for a learner, because only the endings show what goes with what:

Hora and mors are both feminine, so gender cannot help; case does. Nostrae is genitive, so it goes with mortis: the hour of our death. With hora it would have to be ablative, nostra.

Saying it

At mass, use Church Latin; this course's audio speaks classical. The pronunciation lesson has every rule.