Convivae Hymenaeum canunt.

Because canunt is a third-person plural verb, meaning they sing, so we need a plural subject. Convivae can be nominative plural, which fits that job.

At the same time, Hymenaeum is in the accusative singular, which is the normal case for a direct object. So the sentence structure is:

convivae = subject
Hymenaeum = object
canunt = verb

As a form by itself, yes. Convivae could be:

• nominative plural = guests
• genitive singular = of the guest
• dative singular = to/for the guest

But in this sentence, the verb canunt is plural, so convivae is understood as nominative plural, the subject.

This is very common in Latin: one ending can have more than one possible meaning, and the context tells you which one is right.

Hymenaeum is accusative singular.

It is in the accusative because it is the direct object of canunt. In other words, it is the thing being sung.

English mostly shows this by word order, but Latin usually shows it by case ending.

Canunt is:

• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood
• third person plural

It comes from canere, meaning to sing.

So canunt means they sing or, depending on context, they are singing.

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

So a Latin noun like convivae can mean:

• guests
• the guests

and context tells you which is more natural in translation.

The same is true for Hymenaeum.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings already show each word’s role.

Here the order is:

subject – object – verb
Convivae Hymenaeum canunt

That is a very normal Latin pattern, especially because Latin often likes to place the verb near the end.

English depends more heavily on order, so we usually say The guests sing the wedding song rather than The guests the wedding song sing.

Yes. Because the endings show the grammar, Latin can move the words around more freely.

For example, the same basic meaning could still be understood in forms like:

Hymenaeum convivae canunt
Canunt convivae Hymenaeum

The meaning stays basically the same, but the emphasis may change. A word placed first or last can receive extra attention.

Not necessarily.

It is true that many first-declension nouns are feminine, but not all of them are. Some first-declension nouns referring to people can be masculine or common gender.

Conviva means guest/diner, and it can refer to a man or a woman. So the form convivae does not by itself tell you the sex of the guests.

Yes.

The Latin present tense often covers both:

• they sing
• they are singing

English separates these more sharply than Latin does. In Latin, the context usually tells you which way to translate it.

A learner would normally look them up as:

• conviva, -ae = guest
• Hymenaeus, -i (or a similar dictionary form, depending on the vocabulary list) = the wedding song / Hymenaeus
• cano, canere = sing

This is important because Latin words usually appear in sentences in changed forms, not in their dictionary forms. So convivae and canunt are forms you must trace back to conviva and canere.