Ambo nepotes avunculi fabulam de mari libenter audiunt.

Ambo means both, while duo means two.

So ambo nepotes means both grandsons/nephews, emphasizing the pair together. Latin often uses ambo when there are exactly two and you mean both of them rather than just two.

Also, ambo agrees with nepotes:

• masculine
• plural
• nominative

because nepotes is masculine plural nominative here.

Nepotes is nominative plural.

We know this because it is the subject of audiunt (they hear/listen to). The people doing the action are the two grandsons/nephews, so they must be in the nominative.

The verb audiunt is also plural, which matches nepotes.

The noun nepos can mean:

• grandson
• descendant
• sometimes nephew

So nepotes does not always mean the same thing in every sentence. You have to use context, or the meaning supplied by your textbook or teacher, to know which sense is intended here.

Here avunculi is genitive singular, meaning of the uncle.

So ambo nepotes avunculi means both grandsons/nephews of the uncle.

A beginner may notice that avunculi could also look like nominative plural. That is true in isolation. But in this sentence, ambo nepotes already gives us the subject, and avunculi fits naturally as a possessive genitive: the uncle's grandsons/nephews.

Not quite. Avunculus specifically means mother's brother.

Latin can be more precise about family relationships than English:

• avunculus = mother's brother
• patruus = father's brother

In many beginner translations, avunculus is simply given as uncle, but the more exact meaning is maternal uncle.

Fabulam is accusative singular because it is the direct object of audiunt.

It is the thing being heard or listened to:

• they listen to the story

The base form is fabula. In the first declension, the accusative singular ending is -am, so:

• fabula = nominative singular
• fabulam = accusative singular

Because de takes the ablative case.

The noun is mare, maris (sea), a third-declension neuter noun. Its ablative singular is mari.

So:

• mare = nominative/accusative singular
• mari = ablative singular

Since the preposition de requires the ablative, Latin must say de mari.

Here it most naturally goes with fabulam:

• fabulam de mari = a story about the sea

So the phrase means they gladly listen to a story about the sea.

Because Latin word order is flexible, a phrase like de mari can sometimes seem attachable in more than one place. But here fabulam de mari is the most natural grouping.

Libenter is an adverb meaning:

• gladly
• willingly
• with pleasure

It tells you how they listen. It modifies the verb audiunt.

So:

• audiunt = they listen
• libenter audiunt = they gladly listen

Audiunt is:

• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood
• third person plural

from audire (to hear, to listen to).

The ending -unt tells you the subject is they.

So audiunt means they hear or they listen to, depending on context.

Because Latin has no articles.

There is no separate word for:

• the
• a/an

So a noun like fabulam can mean:

• a story
• the story

and context tells you which is meant.

The same is true for other nouns in the sentence. English has to choose an article when translating, but Latin does not.

The word order is important for emphasis, but not as rigidly important as in English.

This sentence is arranged as:

• Ambo nepotes avunculi = subject phrase
• fabulam de mari = object phrase
• libenter = adverb
• audiunt = verb

Latin often puts the verb near the end, as here, but it does not have to. Because the endings show each word's role, Latin can change the order more freely than English.

For example, the basic meaning would still be understood if the words were rearranged, though the emphasis might change.