Maiores urbem magnam fecerunt.

Here maiores means the elders or the ancestors/forefathers.

It is the plural of maior, which is the comparative form of magnus. Even though the basic comparative idea is greater or older, Latin very often uses maiores by itself as a noun-like word meaning elders or ancestors.

So this is an example of an adjective being used substantively: it stands on its own without an expressed noun.

Yes. They both belong to the same family:

• magnus = great, large
• maior = greater, larger, older
• maximus = greatest, largest

So maiores and magnam are related, even though they look fairly different.

This is an irregular comparison. Latin does not form the comparative of magnus as magnior. Instead, it uses maior.

The verb fecerunt means they made or they have made, so the subject must be plural.

In the sentence:

• urbem is clearly accusative singular
• magnam agrees with urbem
• so maiores is the word that functions as the subject

In isolation, maiores could be ambiguous in form, but in this sentence the rest of the grammar makes its role clear: it is the nominative plural subject.

Because urbem is the direct object of fecerunt.

The verb facere often takes a direct object: someone makes something. Here, what did the ancestors make great? the city.

So:

• urbs = city
• urbem = city as the direct object

Because magnam goes with urbem and describes the state that the city is brought into.

This is a common Latin construction with facere:

• object + predicate adjective

So urbem magnam fecerunt means not simply they made a great city in the sense of building one, but they made the city great.

Since magnam refers to urbem, it must match it in:

• gender: feminine
• number: singular
• case: accusative

Because urbem is feminine accusative singular, and the adjective has to agree with it.

The noun is:

• urbs = nominative singular
• urbem = accusative singular

So the adjective must also be accusative singular feminine:

• magna = nominative feminine singular
• magnam = accusative feminine singular

That is why Latin uses magnam here.

The verb facere can mean several things, including do and make, depending on context.

In this sentence it means made, specifically in the sense made the city great.

With a pattern like object + adjective + facere, the idea is often:

• to make something become a certain way
• to render something a certain quality

So here fecerunt is best understood as made.

The more natural meaning is made the city great.

That is because urbem magnam facere uses the pattern where the adjective gives the resulting state of the object. In other words, the city became great because of what they did.

A learner might first think a great city, but the grammar here strongly points to they made the city great rather than they built a large city.

Also, for build/found a city, Latin would often use a more specific verb such as condere, aedificare, or struere, depending on context.

Fecerunt is perfect active indicative, third person plural, from facere.

So it can be translated as:

• they made
• they have made

Which English version is best depends on context, but in many simple textbook sentences they made is the most natural choice.

Because Latin has no articles.

Latin does not have separate words for the or a/an. Whether you translate a noun as the city, a city, or just city depends on context.

So urbem can mean:

• the city
• a city

Here English naturally uses the city.

Because Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

A very common Latin pattern is to place the verb near or at the end of the sentence. So Maiores urbem magnam fecerunt is perfectly normal.

Latin relies more on endings than on word order to show grammatical relationships. That means the sentence could be rearranged without changing the basic meaning, though the emphasis might change.