Breakdown of Turba ante theatrum exspectat; portis apertis, omnes laeti intrant.
Questions & Answers about Turba ante theatrum exspectat; portis apertis, omnes laeti intrant.
Because the grammatical subject is turba, a singular noun meaning crowd. Latin often treats collective nouns as singular in agreement, even though they refer to many individuals. So turba … exspectat = the crowd is waiting (singular verb).
Theatrum is accusative singular because it is the object of the preposition ante (in front of / before), and ante regularly takes the accusative.
In this sentence it’s place: in front of the theater (because people can physically wait there). Ante can be temporal (before in time) or spatial (in front of), and context decides.
That’s an ablative absolute:
- portis = ablative plural of porta (gate)