Magistratus professionem et formulam legit.

Because legit is a third-person singular verb, so it needs a singular subject, and magistratus fits that role here.

Also, professionem and formulam are clearly in the accusative case, which marks them as direct objects. That leaves magistratus as the subject.

A learner may also notice that magistratus can look ambiguous by itself, because this fourth-declension form can represent more than one case/number in other contexts. But in this sentence, the singular verb makes the magistrate the correct interpretation.

Those endings show the accusative singular, which is the case normally used for a direct object.

• professionem = accusative singular of professio
• formulam = accusative singular of formula

Since the verb legit means reads / read, these are the things being read, so they appear in the accusative.

Because the verb has two direct objects joined by et.

So the structure is:

• Magistratus = subject
• professionem et formulam = two coordinated direct objects
• legit = verb

This is perfectly normal Latin. In English, it works the same way: The magistrate reads the declaration and the form.

Et simply means and. It joins professionem and formulam together.

So instead of reading just one thing, the magistrate reads both things.

Because Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order. A very common Latin pattern is:

subject + object(s) + verb

So Magistratus professionem et formulam legit is a very natural Latin arrangement.

Latin could rearrange the words and still keep the same basic meaning, because the endings show the grammatical roles. For example, Professionem et formulam magistratus legit would still mean the same thing.

It can be ambiguous in spelling if no macrons are written.

• legit can be present tense: he/she reads
• lēgit can be perfect tense: he/she read / has read

Without vowel marks, both appear as legit. Usually the intended meaning is clear from context or from the translation already provided.

The dictionary form is magistratus, magistratūs, a fourth-declension masculine noun.

In this sentence it is being used as nominative singular.

This is worth noticing because fourth-declension nouns can look unfamiliar to learners used to first- and second-declension patterns.

They are:

• professionem → professio, professionis
• formulam → formula, formulae
• legit → lego, legere, lēgī, lēctum

So in a dictionary, you would not look up professionem or formulam exactly as they appear here; you would look for their nominative singular forms, professio and formula.

Because Latin has no articles. It does not have separate words for the or a/an.

So magistratus can mean:

• the magistrate
• a magistrate

and the same applies to professionem and formulam. The context or translation decides which English article sounds best.

Not in this sentence as it stands.

The form magistratus can sometimes look like a plural form in unmarked spelling, but here the verb legit is singular, so the subject must be singular: the magistrate.

If the subject were plural, you would expect a plural verb, such as legunt or lēgērunt, depending on the tense.

By the case endings.

• magistratus functions as the subject
• professionem and formulam are accusative, so they are the direct objects

Latin relies much more on endings than on word order. In English, position usually tells you who is doing what. In Latin, the endings do most of that work.

They are both singular.

• professionem = one declaration/profession
• formulam = one form/formula

If they were plural, their forms would be different, such as professiones and formulas.

Yes. Even if the basic meaning is fixed, Latin often allows more than one smooth English rendering.

Depending on context, this could be translated as something like:

• The magistrate reads the declaration and the form.
• The magistrate read the declaration and the form.
• A magistrate reads the declaration and the form.

The exact English version depends on context, especially because Latin has no articles and because legit can be present or perfect if macrons are not shown.