Duo coheredes hereditatem dividunt.

Because duo is the masculine nominative plural form of the numeral two.

It agrees with coheredes, which is a masculine plural noun.

The forms are:

• duo = masculine
• duae = feminine
• duo = neuter

So in this sentence, duo coheredes means two co-heirs.

Coheredes is the nominative plural form of coheres, meaning co-heir or joint heir.

It is in the nominative because it is the subject of the sentence — the people doing the action.

So:

• coheres = one co-heir
• coheredes = co-heirs

Because hereditatem is in the accusative singular.

It is the direct object, meaning it receives the action of the verb. The co-heirs are doing the dividing, and the thing being divided is the inheritance.

Its dictionary form is hereditas:

• hereditas = inheritance
• hereditatem = inheritance (as direct object)

This is a normal third-declension accusative singular ending.

We know from the case endings.

• duo coheredes is the subject in the nominative
• hereditatem is the direct object in the accusative

English usually relies more on word order, but Latin relies much more on case.

So even if the order changed, the endings would still show the roles.

Because the subject is plural: duo coheredes = two co-heirs.

So the verb must also be third person plural:

• dividit = he/she/it divides
• dividunt = they divide

The verb agrees with the subject in number.

Dividunt is present tense, active voice, indicative mood, third person plural.

So it means:

• they divide
• sometimes, depending on context, they are dividing

Latin present tense can cover both a simple present and a progressive present in English.

The basic dictionary form is divido, dividere, divisi, divisum, meaning to divide.

Dividunt comes from dividere, which is a third-conjugation verb.

A learner might notice that:

• divid- is the stem
• -unt is the ending for third person plural present

Because Latin does not have articles like English the, a, or an.

So hereditatem can mean:

• the inheritance
• an inheritance

The exact sense depends on context. In many examples like this, English naturally uses the inheritance, but Latin itself does not mark that with a separate word.

It matters much less in Latin than in English, because the case endings already show each word’s job.

This sentence is in a very natural order:

• Duo coheredes = subject
• hereditatem = object
• dividunt = verb

But Latin could rearrange the words for emphasis, for example:

• Hereditatem duo coheredes dividunt
• Dividunt duo coheredes hereditatem

All of these could still mean the same basic thing.

Not always.

Latin often keeps words that belong together near each other, but it can separate them, especially in more literary writing.

For example, a Latin author might place another word in between for emphasis or style. Still, duo agrees with coheredes, so the reader can connect them.

Because the sentence is talking about one inheritance being divided by two heirs.

The number of the noun depends on what is being referred to, not on how many people are involved.

So:

• duo coheredes = two people
• hereditatem = one inheritance

In this sentence, it is treated as masculine because duo is the masculine form.

In Latin, mixed groups or groups of males normally take masculine agreement. If the noun referred specifically to women, you might expect feminine agreement with the numeral instead.

The key point for this sentence is that duo tells you the noun is being taken as masculine here.

Yes.

That is a very natural English translation of the Latin present tense.

Depending on context, dividunt can be translated as:

• divide
• are dividing

Both are possible ways to express the Latin present in English.

In a common reconstructed Classical pronunciation, roughly:

DOO-oh koh-heh-RAY-days heh-ray-dee-TAH-tem dee-WEE-doont

A few helpful points:

• duo has two syllables: du-o
• coheredes has the h pronounced lightly
• c is always hard in Classical Latin
• v is pronounced like w in Classical pronunciation, so dividunt sounds more like diwidunt
• the stress falls on:
  • coheredes: coheRĒdes
  • hereditatem: herediTĀtem
  • dividunt: diVIdunt

If your course uses Ecclesiastical pronunciation, some sounds will be different.