Quidquid magistra discipulis explicat, Lucia diligenter scribit.

Quidquid means whatever or anything that.

It is a free relative pronoun: it does not point back to a separate noun, but itself means the thing(s) that or whatever.

So:

• Quidquid magistra discipulis explicat = whatever the teacher explains to the students

In this sentence, quidquid is the thing being explained and also the thing Lucia writes.

In sense, quidquid is the direct object of both explicat and scribit, so it is functioning as an accusative.

However, with quidquid, the nominative and accusative neuter singular look the same, so the form itself does not change.

That is why you can think of it as:

• whatever = the thing that is explained
• whatever = the thing that Lucia writes down

Because Latin does not need one here.

English often says something like:

• Whatever the teacher explains to the students, Lucia writes it down carefully.

Latin can simply say:

• Quidquid ... explicat, Lucia ... scribit.

The word quidquid already supplies the object idea for both verbs, so no extra it is necessary.

Because magistra is the subject of explicat.

She is the one doing the explaining.

• magistra = the teacher
• explicat = explains

So magistra must be in the nominative, the normal case for the subject of a verb.

Discipulis is dative plural.

Here it means to the students, so it is the indirect object:

• magistra discipulis explicat = the teacher explains to the students

This is very common in Latin:

• the thing explained is in the accusative
• the person told/explained to is in the dative

So in this sentence:

• quidquid = what is explained
• discipulis = to whom it is explained

Because its subject, magistra, is singular.

Explicat is:

• 3rd person singular
• present active indicative

So it means she explains or is explaining, depending on context.

Since there is only one teacher here, the singular verb is required.

Diligenter is an adverb, meaning carefully, diligently, or attentively.

It modifies scribit:

• Lucia diligenter scribit = Lucia writes carefully

So it tells us how Lucia writes.

A useful pattern to notice is:

• adjective: diligens = careful, diligent
• adverb: diligenter = carefully, diligently

Literally, scribit means writes.

But in a sentence like this, English often naturally translates it as writes down, because Lucia is writing the material that the teacher explains.

So:

• literal sense: writes
• natural English sense in context: writes down

Latin does not need a separate word corresponding to English down here.

It has two parts:

1. Quidquid magistra discipulis explicat
   = a subordinate clause, introduced by quidquid

2. Lucia diligenter scribit
   = the main clause

So the structure is basically:

• Whatever the teacher explains to the students, Lucia carefully writes down.

This is a very normal Latin pattern: the clause with quidquid comes first, and the main clause follows.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical roles.

This means Latin can put words first for emphasis or style.

Here, putting quidquid first emphasizes the idea of whatever it is. It also neatly introduces the first clause before the main statement about Lucia.

A more English-like order would be something like:

• Lucia quidquid magistra discipulis explicat diligenter scribit

But the given order is very natural in Latin.

Yes. Both quidquid and quicquid are found.

They mean the same thing: whatever.

So if you see quicquid magistra discipulis explicat, it is not a different construction; it is just a spelling variant.