Examen tinnitum audit et in ramo considit.

Examen is nominative singular. In this sentence, it is the thing doing the actions audit and considit, so it is the subject.

A learner might expect a subject ending like -us or -a, but examen is a third-declension neuter noun, so its nominative singular has a different shape.

That is because examen belongs to the third declension, not the first or second. Its dictionary form is examen, examinis.

Many early Latin nouns learners meet are things like puella or servus, so examen can look strange at first. But third-declension neuter nouns often have less familiar nominative forms. The important thing is to learn the full dictionary entry, especially the genitive: examen, examinis.

Here tinnitum is a noun, not a verb. It is the accusative singular of tinnitus, -us, a fourth-declension noun meaning something like ringing, jingling, or buzzing.

It is the direct object of audit, so it is the thing being heard.

A common source of confusion is that -tum can also appear in verbal forms, but in this sentence tinnitum is simply a noun in the accusative.

Audit is third person singular present active indicative of audire.

So it means he/she/it hears or is hearing, depending on context. Since the subject is examen, the sense is it hears.

Latin usually does not use articles like English the or a. So a noun like examen can mean the swarm, a swarm, or just swarm, depending on context.

Latin also often leaves out subject pronouns such as it, because the verb ending already shows the person and number. For example, audit already means he/she/it hears, so Latin does not need a separate word for it.

Because in with the ablative usually expresses location: in/on a branch.

So ramo is ablative singular of ramus.

A very useful rule is:

• in + accusative = motion into/onto
• in + ablative = position in/on

Here Latin presents the branch as the place where the swarm ends up sitting, so in ramo is natural.

Latin in can mean in, on, or sometimes among, depending on the noun and the situation.

With ramo = branch, English naturally says on a branch, not in a branch, so in ramo is best understood as on a branch.

So the Latin preposition stays the same, but the best English translation changes with the context.

Considit is third person singular present active indicative of considere, meaning sits down, settles, or comes to rest.

So the subject examen is doing this action now in the sentence.

A learner may confuse it with the perfect tense, but the perfect of this verb is consedit, not considit.

Yes, examen is the subject of both verbs:

• audit
• considit

Latin often states the subject once and then continues with more verbs if the subject stays the same. So there is no need to repeat examen after et.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin uses endings to show what each word is doing.

In English, word order is very important for showing subject and object. In Latin, case endings do much of that work, so the writer has more freedom.

This sentence places words in a very natural Latin way:

• subject: examen
• object before the verb: tinnitum audit
• prepositional phrase before the verb: in ramo considit

So the sentence may feel unusual to an English speaker, but it is perfectly normal Latin.