Bombus apiculae auditur.

Because auditur is passive, not active.

• audit = he/she/it hears
• auditur = he/she/it is heard

The ending -tur is a very common sign of the 3rd person singular passive in Latin.

So in this sentence, the subject is not doing the hearing. It is the thing being heard.

The subject is bombus.

Since auditur means is heard, we ask: what is heard? The answer is bombus.

So bombus is in the nominative singular, because it is the grammatical subject of the passive verb.

Here apiculae is most naturally genitive singular: of the little bee / of the bee.

So:

• bombus = buzzing, hum
• apiculae = of the little bee

Together, bombus apiculae means the buzzing of the little bee.

This is a very common Latin pattern: a noun followed by a genitive showing possession or connection.

Because Latin uses the genitive case where English often uses of or an apostrophe.

Compare:

• apicula = the little bee
• apiculae = of the little bee / the little bee’s

So if the meaning is the buzzing of the little bee, Latin needs apiculae, not apicula.

Yes. Apiculae is a form that can be ambiguous by itself. It could be:

• genitive singular = of the little bee
• dative singular = to/for the little bee
• nominative plural = little bees

But in this sentence, genitive singular makes the best sense: the buzzing of the little bee is heard.

This is very normal in Latin: you often decide the exact case from the sentence context, not from the ending alone.

Because the Latin sentence is passive, not active.

Compare:

• Active: Someone hears the buzzing.
  • the buzzing is the object
• Passive: The buzzing is heard.
  • the buzzing becomes the subject

So in Latin:

• active would need an accusative
• passive uses a nominative for the thing being heard

That is why bombus is nominative.

Bombus is a noun meaning buzzing, humming, or booming sound.

It is a second-declension masculine noun. In this sentence it is nominative singular.

A learner might notice that it looks a bit like a sound-word, and that is not accidental: it is related to a buzzing or booming noise.

Apicula is a noun meaning little bee.

It is a diminutive form: it is built from apis (bee) and gives the sense of a small bee or dear little bee.

It is a first-declension feminine noun.

So:

• apicula = little bee
• apiculae = of the little bee / to the little bee / little bees, depending on context

Because Latin often expresses relationships like of, to, from, and so on by changing the ending of the noun rather than adding a separate word.

So instead of saying:

• buzzing of the bee

Latin can say:

• bombus apiculae

where apiculae already contains the idea of the little bee.

This is one of the biggest differences between English and Latin: Latin relies much more on cases.

The word order is normal and possible, but Latin word order is much freer than English word order.

This sentence puts the verb at the end:

• Bombus apiculae auditur

That is very common in Latin.

The order also keeps bombus apiculae together as a unit: the little bee’s buzzing.

English depends heavily on word order for meaning, but Latin depends more on endings.

Yes, in many contexts.

For example, Latin could also say:

• Apiculae bombus auditur
• Auditur bombus apiculae

These can still mean the same basic thing, because the endings show the grammar.

However, different word orders can slightly change the emphasis. The given order is neat and natural if the speaker wants to present the buzzing of the little bee first and then finish with is heard.

Because its subject, bombus, is singular.

• bombus = one buzzing sound / the buzzing
• auditur = is heard (singular)

If the subject were plural, the verb would also be plural.

Yes, in the sense that a passive sentence often leaves the doer unstated.

Auditur means is heard, but it does not say by whom. Latin can leave that unspecified, just as English can.

If Latin wanted to say who hears it, it could add an agent phrase, but here the sentence simply states that the buzzing is heard.

An active version would say that someone hears the buzzing.

For example:

• Apiculae bombum audit. = He/she hears the little bee’s buzzing.
• Bombum apiculae audio. = I hear the little bee’s buzzing.

Notice the change:

• in the passive sentence, bombus is nominative
• in the active sentence, bombum becomes accusative as the direct object

This is a very useful comparison for understanding how the passive works.

A common classroom pronunciation would be roughly:

BOM-boos ah-pih-KOO-lie ow-DEE-toor

In restored Classical pronunciation, it would be closer to:

BOM-boos ah-pih-KOO-lai ow-DEE-toor

A few helpful points:

• b is like English b
• u is pronounced like oo
• c in apiculae is always hard, like k
• au in auditur sounds like ow in cow
• ae is often pronounced like ai in Classical Latin

This sentence teaches several very common Latin features at once:

1. Passive verb formation

   • auditur = is heard

2. The nominative subject of a passive verb

   • bombus is nominative because it is the thing heard

3. The genitive case

   • apiculae = of the little bee

4. Flexible word order

   • Latin does not need English-style fixed order to show who is doing what

So even though the sentence is short, it is a good example of how Latin builds meaning through endings rather than mainly through word order.