Multi mercatores per forum festinant.

Many merchants hurry through the forum.

Breakdown of Multi mercatores per forum festinant.

• mercator: the merchant
• multus: many
• forum: the forum
• festinare: to hurry
• per: through

Questions & Answers about Multi mercatores per forum festinant.

Why is "multi" used instead of another word like "plures"?

Multi and plures are both adjectives meaning "many," but plures often translates as "more" (in a comparative sense). Multi simply means "many" in a general sense. Here, it's describing the merchants as numerous rather than comparing them to a different group.

What case is "mercatores," and why is it used here?

Mercatores is in the nominative plural case, acting as the subject of the sentence ("Many merchants"). In Latin, the subject of a sentence is typically in the nominative case.

Why is "per" used before "forum" and what does it mean?

Per is a preposition that generally means "through" or "along" when used with the accusative case. It indicates movement through a physical space. Therefore, "per forum" translates to something like "through the forum."

What case is "forum," and how do I recognize it?

Forum is in the accusative singular case. You recognize this because forum is a neuter noun of the second declension, and its accusative singular form is identical to its nominative singular form.

How do we know "festinant" means "they hurry"?

The suffix -nt typically indicates the third-person plural form in the present tense for Latin verbs. So festinant is the present, active, indicative, third-person plural form, translated as they hurry or they are hurrying.