Poeta epithalamium recitat, et convivae Hymenaeum canunt.

Because poeta is a first-declension noun borrowed from Greek. In Latin, many first-declension nouns are feminine, but a few referring to male roles are masculine, including poeta (poet), agricola (farmer), and nauta (sailor).

So in this sentence, poeta is:

• nominative singular
• masculine
• the subject of recitat

Its -a ending does not make it feminine here.

In Latin, the subject is often shown by the nominative case and by the verb ending.

Here:

• poeta = nominative singular
• recitat = he/she/it recites, a 3rd person singular verb

Those match naturally: poeta recitat = the poet recites.

Latin does not rely on word order as much as English does, because case endings do much of that work.

Epithalamium is in the accusative singular because it is the direct object of recitat.

The verb recitat means recites, so we ask:

• recites what?
• answer: epithalamium

Since epithalamium is a neuter second-declension noun, its nominative singular and accusative singular look the same:

• nominative singular: epithalamium
• accusative singular: epithalamium

So you identify its function from the sentence, not just from the form by itself.

An epithalamium is a wedding song or marriage poem, especially one performed in honor of a bride and groom.

So Poeta epithalamium recitat means the poet is reciting a poem of that kind.

This word is a Greek literary term that Latin borrowed.

Recitat is from the verb recitare and is:

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

So it means:

• he recites
• she recites
• it recites

Since the subject is poeta, the natural English translation is the poet recites.

The ending -t is a very common sign of a 3rd person singular verb in Latin.

Et simply means and.

It joins the two clauses:

• Poeta epithalamium recitat
• convivae Hymenaeum canunt

So the sentence has two coordinated actions:

• the poet recites
• and the guests sing

Here convivae is nominative plural, meaning the guests or the banquet guests.

You can tell from the verb:

• canunt = they sing
• so the subject must be plural

Since convivae matches that, it is the subject of the second clause.

A learner may notice that convivae could also be:

• genitive singular
• dative singular
• nominative plural
• vocative plural

But in this sentence, only nominative plural makes sense.

It can be either, depending on the person referred to. Conviva means guest, especially a dining guest or banquet guest, and it is a first-declension noun of common gender.

So:

• a male guest can be conviva
• a female guest can also be conviva

In this sentence, convivae just means the guests, without specifying gender.

It is capitalized because it is connected with Hymenaeus (or Hymen), the god associated with marriage.

In Latin, Hymenaeum can refer to:

• a wedding song
• or the cry/song Hymen!
• or something closely connected with the wedding god

So the capital letter signals a mythological or proper-name connection.

Some texts or editions might capitalize it; others might not. Editorial capitalization is not always completely fixed.

Hymenaeum is accusative singular, the direct object of canunt.

We ask:

• the guests sing what?
• Hymenaeum

Like epithalamium, it is a second-declension neuter form, so the nominative singular and accusative singular look the same. In this sentence, its function is clearly object, so it is accusative.

Canunt comes from canere, meaning to sing.

Its form is:

• present
• active
• indicative
• 3rd person plural

So it means:

• they sing

That matches convivae, which is plural.

The ending -nt is a standard marker for a 3rd person plural verb in Latin.

Because classical Latin has no articles.

Latin does not have separate words that exactly match English the or a/an. Whether a noun is translated as:

• a poet
• the poet
• poet

depends on context.

So:

• poeta can mean the poet or a poet
• convivae can mean the guests or guests

English usually requires an article, but Latin often does not.

It matters for style and emphasis, but not as rigidly as in English.

This sentence uses a very straightforward order:

• Poeta (subject)
• epithalamium (object)
• recitat (verb)
• et
• convivae (subject)
• Hymenaeum (object)
• canunt (verb)

Because Latin marks grammatical roles with endings, the words could often be rearranged without changing the basic meaning. For example:

• Epithalamium poeta recitat
• Convivae canunt Hymenaeum

Those would still mean essentially the same thing, though the emphasis would shift.

The comma helps modern readers see the two clauses more easily:

• Poeta epithalamium recitat
• et convivae Hymenaeum canunt

In ancient Latin manuscripts, punctuation was much less standardized than in modern editions. So the comma is mainly an editorial aid, not something you should treat as a core grammatical feature of the language.

They are closely related, but not necessarily identical in nuance.

• epithalamium usually means a bridal song or wedding poem
• Hymenaeum refers to a wedding song/cry associated with Hymen, the marriage god

In many contexts, both can refer to wedding-song material, but the second word carries a stronger mythological association.

So the sentence nicely varies the vocabulary instead of repeating the same word twice.

A rough classroom pronunciation in restored classical Latin would be:

• Poeta: poi-TAH
• epithalamium: e-pi-tha-LA-mi-um
• recitat: RE-ki-tat
• et: et
• convivae: kon-WEE-wai
• Hymenaeum: hy-meh-NAI-um
• canunt: KA-nunt

A few helpful notes:

• ae is usually pronounced like ai in aisle
• v is pronounced like English w in classical pronunciation
• c is always hard, like k

So convivae sounds more like kon-wee-wai than English-style con-viv-ee.