Magister dicit: “Discipuli multum student, et eorum mentes manent fortes.”

It has two main parts:

• Magister dicit = The teacher says
• Then the direct quotation: Discipuli multum student, et eorum mentes manent fortes.

Inside the quotation, there are two clauses joined by et:

• Discipuli multum student = The students study a lot
• eorum mentes manent fortes = their minds remain strong

Magister is the nominative singular form, because it is the subject of dicit.

• magister = teacher as the doer of the action
• dicit = says

So magister dicit means the teacher says.

Because the subject is singular:

• magister = the teacher (one person)
• so the verb must also be singular: dicit = he/she says

If the subject were plural, such as magistri (the teachers), then you would use dicunt = they say.

Discipuli is the nominative plural of discipulus, so it means students and serves as the subject of student.

• discipulus = student (one male student)
• discipuli = students (more than one; masculine or mixed group)

Since student means they study, the subject has to be plural.

Because multum here means a lot or much, not many.

• multum student = they study a lot
• multi discipuli = many students

So:

• multum is being used adverbially
• multi would be an adjective describing a plural noun

This is a very common Latin pattern.

Student is the 3rd person plural present active indicative of studeo, studere.

Here it means they study or they apply themselves.

A useful note: studeo can also mean be eager for or be devoted to, often with a dative object. But in this sentence it is being used in the simple sense study/work hard.

Eorum is the genitive plural of is, ea, id, and it literally means of them. In English, that is often best translated as their.

So:

• eorum mentes = their minds

Latin often uses a genitive where English uses a possessive adjective.

This is a very common learner question.

In Latin, suus, sua, suum usually refers back to the subject of its own clause. In the clause

• eorum mentes manent fortes

the grammatical subject is mentes, not discipuli.

So suas mentes would naturally point back to mentes themselves, not to the students. Because of that, Latin uses eorum to mean the students' / their here.

So eorum is the clearer and more correct choice in this sentence.

Mentes is nominative plural.

It is the subject of manent:

• mentes = minds
• manent = remain

So mentes manent fortes means minds remain strong.

Fortes is an adjective agreeing with mentes.

Since mentes is:

• nominative
• plural
• feminine

the adjective must match it, so Latin uses fortes.

This is called agreement. Latin adjectives agree with their nouns in:

• gender
• number
• case

Maneo means remain or stay, and it can be followed by a predicate adjective.

So:

• mentes = subject
• manent = remain
• fortes = strong

In other words, fortes describes what the minds continue to be.

This is similar to English:

• The minds remain strong

Latin has no articles. It does not have separate words for the or a/an.

So:

• magister can mean teacher, the teacher, or even a teacher
• discipuli can mean students or the students

You figure out the best English wording from the context.

Not as fixed as in English.

This sentence uses a fairly straightforward order:

• Magister dicit
• Discipuli multum student
• eorum mentes manent fortes

But Latin word order is more flexible because the endings show each word's role. For example, Discipuli multum student could be rearranged as Multum discipuli student without changing the basic meaning, though the emphasis would shift slightly.

So in Latin, endings usually matter more than position.