Discipulus manum levat, quia responsum scit.

Discipulus is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative singular. Its basic dictionary form is also discipulus, meaning student or pupil.

In this sentence, discipulus is the one doing the action of levat and scit, so nominative is exactly what we expect.

Because manum is the accusative singular form of manus, meaning hand.

Latin uses case endings to show how a noun functions in the sentence. Here, the hand is the direct object of levat: the student raises a hand / his hand. So Latin uses the accusative.

This is a good noun to notice because manus is a fourth-declension noun:

• nominative singular: manus
• accusative singular: manum

So even though manus ends in -us, it is not a typical second-declension masculine noun.

Yes, Latin could use the plural, but manum levat means he raises his hand or a hand, which is the normal idea here.

If you wanted he raises his hands, you would expect a plural form, such as manus levat only if the form were nominative or accusative plural depending on context. In fact, for this noun, manus can also be the accusative plural, so context matters.

In this sentence, the singular makes the most natural sense: one student raises one hand.

Levat means raises or lifts. It comes from the verb levo, levare, meaning to raise, lift, or make lighter.

The ending -t shows that the verb is:

• third person
• singular
• present tense

So levat means he/she/it raises. Since the subject is discipulus, it means the student raises.

Latin usually does not need a subject pronoun when the verb ending already tells you the person and number.

For example:

• levat = he/she/it raises
• scit = he/she/it knows

Because the sentence already has the noun discipulus, there is even less need to add a pronoun. Latin is very comfortable leaving pronouns out unless they are needed for emphasis or contrast.

Quia means because. It introduces a clause that gives the reason for the main action.

So the structure is:

• main clause: Discipulus manum levat
• reason clause: quia responsum scit

In other words: The student raises his hand because he knows the answer.

Because responsum is the direct object of scit.

The verb scit means knows, and in Latin scire normally takes a direct object in the accusative:

• responsum scit = he knows the answer

So:

• discipulus = nominative subject
• manum = accusative object of levat
• responsum = accusative object of scit

The base form is also responsum, a neuter noun meaning answer or response.

It is a second-declension neuter noun. A useful pattern for neuter second-declension nouns is:

• nominative singular: responsum
• accusative singular: responsum

So here the nominative and accusative singular look the same. You know it is accusative because it is the object of scit.

Scit is the third person singular present active indicative of scio, scire, meaning to know.

So scit means:

• he knows
• she knows
• it knows

With discipulus as the subject, it means the student knows.

This is a very common verb in Latin, and its form is worth memorizing:

• scio = I know
• scis = you know
• scit = he/she knows

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

So this sentence could be rearranged in several ways without changing the basic meaning, for example:

• Manum discipulus levat, quia responsum scit.
• Quia responsum scit, discipulus manum levat.
• Discipulus quia responsum scit manum levat.

The original order is straightforward and clear, but Latin does not depend on word order as heavily as English does.

Latin has no articles like English the or a/an. So discipulus can mean:

• the student
• a student

Likewise, Latin often does not need a possessive word like his when the meaning is obvious from context. So manum levat naturally means he raises his hand.

If Latin wanted to be more explicit, it could add a possessive adjective, but very often it does not.

Yes. Responsum can mean answer, reply, or response, depending on context.

In a classroom sentence like this, answer is the most natural English translation. But in other settings it could mean a reply to a question, a response in conversation, or even an oracle’s answer in some literary contexts.

In a common classroom-style reconstructed pronunciation, you could say it roughly like this:

dis-KI-pu-lus MA-num LE-wat, KWI-a re-SPON-sum skit

A few helpful points:

• c in discipulus and scit is always hard, like k
• v in classical pronunciation sounds like w
• qu sounds like kw
• sc before i in scit is usually pronounced sk

If your course uses an ecclesiastical pronunciation, some sounds may differ, but the grammar stays the same.