Legendo orationem consulis et interpretando verba eius, discipuli discunt quam difficilis ars bene dicendi sit.

to be

Breakdown of Legendo orationem consulis et interpretando verba eius, discipuli discunt quam difficilis ars bene dicendi sit.

• legere: to read
• et: and
• discipulus: the student

Questions & Answers about Legendo orationem consulis et interpretando verba eius, discipuli discunt quam difficilis ars bene dicendi sit.

Why are legendo and interpretando in this form?

They are gerunds in the ablative singular.

A gerund is a verbal noun, and in Latin the ablative gerund often expresses the idea of by doing something or through doing something.

So:

• legendo = by reading
• interpretando = by interpreting

Together, Legendo ... et interpretando ... explains how the students learn.

A native English speaker may be tempted to think of them as ordinary present participles, but they are not. Latin is not saying reading and interpreting, the students learn in the same way English might. It is using gerunds to express means: by reading ... and by interpreting ...

Why is it orationem consulis and not consulis orationem?

Both word orders are possible in Latin. Latin word order is much freer than English word order because case endings show the grammatical relationships.

Here:

• orationem is accusative singular, so it is the direct object of legendo
• consulis is genitive singular, so it means of the consul

So orationem consulis means the speech of the consul.

This order is natural and clear, but consulis orationem would also be grammatically possible.