Iudex de facto civis discit.

Most naturally, no. Iudex is the main subject, and civis is another nominative noun in apposition to it.

Apposition means that two nouns stand next to each other and refer to the same person or thing:

• iudex = the judge
• civis = citizen

So the structure is like the judge, a citizen, learns or the judge, in fact a citizen, learns.

Latin often does this very compactly, without needing extra words.

Because civis is not acting as the direct object here.

If civis were the object of discit, you would expect the accusative singular civem, not civis.

So the nominative ending is an important clue: civis is describing the subject, not receiving the action of the verb.

Also, discit can appear without an expressed object, especially when the thing being learned is understood from context.

Because this is not a separate is-sentence such as The judge is a citizen.

Instead, civis is simply placed in apposition to iudex. English often does something similar:

• The judge, a citizen, learns.

There is no need for is there either.

If you wanted a full sentence meaning The judge is a citizen, Latin would normally say:

• Iudex civis est.

So in your sentence, the lack of est suggests that civis is attached to iudex as a descriptive noun.

De facto is a fixed Latin phrase meaning something like:

• in fact
• in practice
• as a matter of fact
• in actual reality

Grammatically, it is a prepositional phrase:

• de = from / concerning / in respect to
• facto = ablative singular of factum

Because de takes the ablative, facto is ablative.

In this sentence, de facto most naturally modifies the idea of being civis, so the sense is that the judge is a citizen in fact or in practice.

It is genuinely Latin in form, and English borrowed it directly from Latin.

That said, many learners first meet it as an English legal or formal expression, so it can feel more familiar than some other Latin phrases. In a Latin sentence, you can still analyze it normally as de + ablative.

Depending on style, especially in very classical prose, other expressions such as re vera might sometimes feel more idiomatic. But de facto itself is perfectly understandable Latin.

Discit is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• indicative mood
• active voice

It comes from discere, meaning to learn.

So discit means he/she/it learns or is learning, depending on context.

Because Latin verbs already contain the person and number, no separate subject pronoun is needed.

Because Latin has no articles.

So iudex can mean:

• a judge
• the judge

and civis can mean:

• a citizen
• the citizen

Context tells you which is most natural.

This is very common for English speakers to notice, since English requires articles much more often than Latin does.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because grammatical endings do a lot of the work.

Here, the endings tell you the roles:

• iudex = nominative subject
• civis = nominative in apposition
• discit = verb

So the sentence can tolerate a fairly flexible arrangement. The placement of de facto between iudex and civis helps connect it with civis or with that descriptive idea.

Also, putting the verb at the end, as in ... discit, is very common in Latin.

In modern punctuation, someone might even write it as:

• Iudex, de facto civis, discit.

to make the apposition clearer to an English-speaking reader.

Both are third-declension nouns.

Their dictionary forms are:

• iudex, iudicis = judge
• civis, civis = citizen

That helps explain why their nominative singular forms do not look like first- or second-declension nouns such as puella or servus.

A few useful forms are:

• iudex → accusative iudicem
• civis → accusative civem

Those accusative forms are especially helpful for seeing why civis in your sentence is not the direct object.

No. Both words can refer to a person of either sex, depending on context.

Latin grammatical gender and real-world sex do not always match in the way English speakers expect. In practice, iudex and civis can both be used for a woman as well as a man unless something in the context specifies otherwise.

So discit could be translated as he learns or she learns, depending on who the judge is.