Sic puellae et pueri, legendo, audiendo, meditando, et inter se tractando, et libros et vitam urbis paulatim intellegunt.

Here sic means something like thus, in this way, or so.

It points forward to the list of activities that follows:

• legendo = by reading
• audiendo = by listening
• meditando = by reflecting/thinking
• inter se tractando = by discussing among themselves

So sic introduces the idea this is how they come to understand.

Both are nominative plural, because they are the subject of intellegunt.

• puellae = the girls
• pueri = the boys

A learner might notice that puellae can also be genitive singular or dative singular, but here it must be nominative plural because it is paired with pueri and clearly functions as the subject.

Because the subject is plural: puellae et pueri = the girls and boys.

So Latin uses the 3rd person plural verb:

• intellegit = he/she understands
• intellegunt = they understand

They are gerunds in the ablative singular, not participles.

In this sentence they express means or manner:

• legendo = by reading
• audiendo = by listening
• meditando = by reflecting
• tractando = by discussing / handling / treating

So the sentence says how the boys and girls come to understand.

A very natural way to translate them is with by + -ing in English.

The ablative gerund often expresses means or method. In English, we usually translate it as by doing something.

So:

• legendo = by reading
• audiendo = by listening

This is a very common Latin construction. It answers the question how? by what means?

Yes, that is something learners often notice.

meditor, meditari is a deponent verb. That means it has passive-looking forms but an active meaning. Even so, it still forms a gerund normally:

• meditandi = of reflecting
• meditando = by reflecting

So although meditor is deponent, meditando still simply means by reflecting or by thinking over.

Inter se means among themselves, with one another, or with each other.

• inter = among, between
• se = themselves

So inter se tractando means by discussing with one another.

Because se is the reflexive pronoun. It refers back to the subject of the clause.

Here the subject is puellae et pueri, so inter se means among themselves.

If Latin used eos or eas, that would refer to them as some other group, not back to the subject itself.

That is a good question, because tractare has a range of meanings.

It can mean:

• to handle
• to treat
• to discuss
• to consider

In this sentence, with inter se, the sense is clearly discussing among themselves or talking over together.

So inter se tractando is not about physically handling one another; it means by discussing things together.

Latin often uses repeated et more freely than English does.

There are two slightly different uses here:

1. Simple and:

   • puellae et pueri
   • legendo, audiendo, meditando, et inter se tractando

2. Correlative et ... et ... = both ... and ...

   • et libros et vitam urbis

So the last part means both books and the life of the city.

Because et ... et ... is a standard Latin way to emphasize that both items are included.

So:

• libros et vitam urbis = books and the life of the city
• et libros et vitam urbis = both books and the life of the city

The second version is a little more pointed and balanced.

They are in the accusative, because they are the direct objects of intellegunt.

• libros = accusative plural of liber
• vitam = accusative singular of vita

The students understand these things, so those nouns are the objects of the verb.

Urbis is the genitive singular of urbs, and it depends on vitam:

• vita urbis = the life of the city

So vitam urbis means the life of the city.

This is a very common use of the genitive: one noun qualifying another, often translated with of in English.

Because the sentence is talking about:

• books as multiple individual objects of study
• the life of the city as one broader idea or reality

Latin is simply following the sense:

• libros = many books
• vitam urbis = the life of the city, viewed as one thing

There is nothing grammatically strange about that combination.

Paulatim means gradually, little by little, or step by step.

It is an adverb, and it modifies intellegunt.

So the idea is that the girls and boys do not understand everything at once; they come to understand gradually.

The main framework is:

• Sic puellae et pueri ... intellegunt.
• Thus the girls and boys ... understand.

Between subject and main verb, Latin inserts several ablative gerunds that explain how they come to understand:

• legendo
• audiendo
• meditando
• inter se tractando

Then the objects come after that:

• et libros et vitam urbis

So the structure is roughly:

Thus the girls and boys, by reading, listening, reflecting, and discussing with each other, gradually understand both books and the life of the city.

They go syntactically with intellegunt, not directly with puellae et pueri.

They are adverbial expressions telling us how the understanding happens.

So the sense is not the reading/listening girls and boys, but rather:

the girls and boys understand by reading, by listening, by reflecting, and by discussing together.

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

English depends heavily on position:

• The boys see the girls is different from
• The girls see the boys

Latin can move words around more freely because case endings make the roles clear.

In this sentence, the order helps with rhythm and emphasis:

• subject first: puellae et pueri
• then the methods: legendo, audiendo, meditando, et inter se tractando
• then the objects: et libros et vitam urbis
• main verb at the end: intellegunt

That final position for the verb is especially common in Latin prose.

Not in the same way as word endings are.

The commas here are a modern editorial help for readers. They separate the list of gerunds and make the sentence easier to follow.

Ancient Latin manuscripts often had far less punctuation than modern printed texts.

So the commas are useful, but they are not the main thing that tells you the grammar. The endings do that.