How do I go about translating a sentence?

Translating a sentence can be easy if you take it in simple steps! We will translate the sentence 'Julius suo servo pecuniam dedit'. We should begin by finding the verb. If you have learnt to conjugate verbs, you will recognise that the verb is 'dedit' due to its ending 'it'. This means 'he/she gave'. We are therefore looking for a subject for the sentence that is in the nominative singular case, and a noun in the accusative to be the object of the verb. By addressing the case of each noun in the sentence, we can fit the words into their correct place. 'Julius' appears to be of the first declension, and therefore nominative singular as it ends 'us'. 'pecuniam' is second declension, and the 'am' ending means it must be accusative singular. As a result, we have found the subject and object of our verb, and can translate our sentence as 'Julius gave the money...' so far. 'suo servo' are both in the dative or ablative case, since 'servus' is a first declension noun with the ending 'o' here. Dative is used to say 'to' or 'for', and ablative to say 'by'. Dative makes the most contextual sense in this sentence. We can therefore translate the sentence as 'Julius gave the money to his slave'.