Word
Aliqui in bibliotheca tacent, alii de auctore disputant.
Meaning
Some are silent in the library, others discuss the author.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Aliqui in bibliotheca tacent, alii de auctore disputant.
in
in
de
about
tacere
to be silent
bibliotheca
the library
Questions & Answers about Aliqui in bibliotheca tacent, alii de auctore disputant.
What do aliqui and alii mean here?
Aliqui means some or some people, and alii means others.
In this sentence, both words are being used substantively—that is, they stand on their own without a noun like homines (people) being stated. Latin often does this when the noun is easy to understand.
So the sentence is basically:
- Aliqui = some people
- alii = other people / others
They are both masculine plural nominative here, because they are the subjects of the two verbs.
Why are aliqui and alii plural?
They are plural because the sentence is talking about more than one person in each group:
- some people are silent
- other people are discussing the author
Latin marks this clearly with both the subject words and the verb endings:
- aliqui ... tacent = some people are silent
- alii ... disputant = others are discussing
The verb endings -ent and -ant also show third person plural.
Why is it in bibliotheca and not in bibliothecam?