Cum magister tacet, discipuli veritatem facilius audiunt.

When the teacher is silent, the students hear the truth more easily.

Breakdown of Cum magister tacet, discipuli veritatem facilius audiunt.

• discipulus: the student
• magister: the teacher
• tacere: to be silent
• veritas: the truth
• cum: when
• audire: to hear
• facilius: more easily

Questions & Answers about Cum magister tacet, discipuli veritatem facilius audiunt.

What does cum mean here? I thought cum usually meant “with.”

Cum has two main uses:

1. As a preposition (meaning “with”)

   • It takes the ablative case:
     
     • cum amīcō – with a friend
     • cum magistrō – with the teacher

2. As a conjunction (meaning “when / whenever / since / although”)

   • It introduces a subordinate clause and is followed by a finite verb:
     
     • cum magister tacet – when the teacher is silent
     • cum pluit – when it rains

In Cum magister tacet, cum is a conjunction, so it does not take an ablative; it just introduces the clause magister tacet. That’s why magister is nominative, not ablative.

So here you should think “when” (or depending on context, possibly “since”), not “with.”

Why is magister in the nominative and not magistrō after cum?

Because in this sentence cum is not a preposition; it’s a conjunction.

• As a preposition (“with”), cum would take the ablative:

  • cum magistrō – with the teacher

• As a conjunction (“when / since / although”), cum simply introduces a clause with its own subject and verb:

  • cum magister tacet – when the teacher is silent
    
    • magister = subject (nominative)
    • tacet = verb

So magister is nominative because it is the subject of tacet, just like discipuli is the subject of audiunt in the main clause.

What is the grammatical role and form of discipuli?

Discipulī is:

• From the noun discipulus, discipulī (m.) – student, pupil, disciple
• Case: nominative
• Number: plural
• Gender: masculine (by dictionary form; could refer to mixed or all-male group)
• Function: subject of the main verb audiunt

So discipulī audiunt = the students hear / listen to. The whole main clause is:

• discipulī – subject
• veritātem – direct object (accusative)
• facilius – adverb (modifies audiunt)
• audiunt – verb

Why is it veritatem and not veritas? What case is that?

Veritātem is:

• From vēritās, vēritātis (f.) – truth
• Declension: 3rd
• Case: accusative
• Number: singular

It’s the direct object of audiunt (“they hear the truth”).

The forms look like this (singular):

• Nominative: vēritās – truth (as subject)
• Genitive: vēritātis
• Dative: vēritātī
• Accusative: vēritātem – truth (as object)
• Ablative: vēritāte

Because “hear” takes an object (hear what? → the truth), Latin puts vēritātem in the accusative, not the nominative.

What exactly is facilius? Why not facile?

Facilius is the comparative adverb of facilis, facile – easy.

• facilis (adj.) – easy
• facile (adverb) – easily
• facilius (comparative adverb) – more easily

In Latin, the comparative adverb is formed from the neuter singular comparative adjective:

• facilior (m./f.), facilius (n.) – easier (adjective)
• The -ius form also serves as the adverb: more easily

So:

• deum facile audiunt – they hear God easily
• deum facilius audiunt – they hear God more easily

In the sentence, facilius modifies audiunt:
discipulī veritātem facilius audiunt – the students hear the truth more easily.

Does facilius modify veritatem or audiunt?

Facilius is an adverb, and adverbs in Latin normally modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, not nouns.

So here:

• veritātem – noun (object)
• facilius – adverb
• audiunt – verb

Even though facilius stands next to veritātem in word order, it is logically attached to audiunt:

• They hear the truth more easily,
  not
• They hear the *more easy truth.*

Latin word order is quite flexible; proximity doesn’t always show which word something modifies. The part of speech is the main guide: an adverb like facilius will go with a verb like audiunt.

What tense and mood is tacet, and why isn’t it subjunctive after cum?

Tacet is:

• From taceō, tacēre, tacuī, tacitum – be silent, keep quiet
• Person: 3rd
• Number: singular
• Tense: present
• Mood: indicative
• Voice: active

Latin cum-clauses can take either the indicative or the subjunctive, with different nuances:

• Cum

  • indicative
  • Often simple time: when(ever)
  • cum magister tacet – when the teacher is silent

• Cum

  • subjunctive
  • Often express circumstance, cause, concession, etc.:
    
    • cum magister taceret – when the teacher was silent / while the teacher was silent (backgrounded circumstance)
    • cum magister taceat, discipulī… – might be interpreted as more general or less factual, depending on context

Here the present indicative tacet presents a straightforward, factual situation: When the teacher is (actually) silent, …. For a learner’s sentence, that’s the most straightforward reading.

How does the time relationship work with cum magister tacet, discipuli … audiunt? Are both actions happening at the same time?

Yes. In this construction:

• Cum magister tacet – when the teacher is silent
• discipulī … audiunt – the students hear …

Both verbs are present indicative, so they describe actions that are simultaneous in time from the speaker’s perspective.

You can think of it as:

• At the time when the teacher is silent, at that same time the students are hearing the truth more easily.

Latin often uses present + present with cum to show two activities happening together, much like English “when X happens, Y happens.”

What is audiunt grammatically, and how do we know it goes with discipuli?

Audiunt is:

• From audiō, audīre, audīvī/audīī, audītum – hear, listen (to)
• Conjugation: 4th
• Person: 3rd
• Number: plural
• Tense: present
• Mood: indicative
• Voice: active

It ends in -unt, which marks 3rd person plural present active for 3rd and 4th conjugation verbs.

It goes with discipulī because:

• discipulī is nominative plural (subject form)
• audiunt is 3rd plural (so the subject must be plural)
• No other nominative plural in the main clause is available as a subject.

So: discipulī audiunt = the students hear.

Why is there a comma after tacet? Is that part of Latin grammar?

The comma is a matter of modern punctuation practice, not classical Latin grammar.

Classical authors originally wrote with very little or no punctuation. Modern editors and textbooks add commas to:

• separate subordinate clauses from the main clause
• make sentences easier to read for modern eyes

Here:

• Cum magister tacet – subordinate clause
• discipulī veritātem facilius audiunt – main clause

So the comma after tacet simply marks off the cum-clause from the main clause. It’s not “required” by ancient Latin rules, but it is good, standard modern practice.

Could this cum clause also mean “since the teacher is silent” instead of “when the teacher is silent”?

Yes, cum + indicative can sometimes be translated as “since” if the context suggests a cause rather than pure time.

Two main possibilities here:

1. Temporal:

   • When the teacher is silent, the students hear the truth more easily.
     (describing what happens at that time)

2. Causal (less common with indicative, but possible in some styles or simple Latin):

   • Since the teacher is silent, the students hear the truth more easily.
     (the teacher’s silence is a reason)

In classical prose, a clearly causal nuance is more typically expressed with cum + subjunctive, or with other words like quoniam, quod, etc.

In a textbook-style sentence like this, the safest default is “when.” Context would decide if “since” is intended.

How flexible is the word order? Could we rearrange the sentence?

Latin word order is fairly flexible, because the endings show the grammatical roles. For example, all of these are grammatically possible and mean essentially the same thing:

• Cum magister tacet, discipulī veritātem facilius audiunt.
• Cum magister tacet, veritātem discipulī facilius audiunt.
• Cum magister tacet, veritātem facilius discipulī audiunt.
• Cum magister tacet, discipulī facilius veritātem audiunt.

What almost never changes is:

• The finite verb usually stays in its clause
• The case endings stay the same (you can’t change veritātem to vēritās without changing its function)

Latin often puts:

• Verb towards the end of the clause
• Important / contrastive information at the beginning of the sentence or clause

The given order is very normal and clear for a learner.