Magistra dicit: "Hic liber facilis est, ille liber difficilis; tamen vos potestis multum discere."

to be

Breakdown of Magistra dicit: "Hic liber facilis est, ille liber difficilis; tamen vos potestis multum discere."

• multum: a lot
• liber: the book
• magistra: the female teacher

Questions & Answers about Magistra dicit: "Hic liber facilis est, ille liber difficilis; tamen vos potestis multum discere."

What is magistra, and what role does it play in the sentence?

Magistra means female teacher.

Grammatically:

• Form in the sentence: nominative singular feminine
• Dictionary form: magistra, magistrae (1st declension noun)
• Function: It is the subject of the verb dicit.

So Magistra dicit = The (female) teacher says or The teacher is saying.

How should I understand dicit here? Does it mean “says” or “said”?

Dicit is:

• present tense
• 3rd person singular
• from the verb dico, dicere, dixi, dictum = to say, tell, speak

Literal meaning: “she says / is saying”.

Depending on context, Latin’s present tense can sometimes be translated as English past (“she said”) in narrative, but on its own like this, the safest translation is present:

• Magistra dicit = The teacher says / is saying

Why is there a colon and quotation marks? Is that really “Latin,” or just an editor’s choice?

The colon and quotation marks are editorial conventions, not original features of classical Latin.

• In ancient manuscripts, there were the way we use them.