Orator in contione audiendus est.

to be

Breakdown of Orator in contione audiendus est.

• in: in
• contio: the assembly
• orator: the orator

Questions & Answers about Orator in contione audiendus est.

What grammatical pattern is audiendus est?

It is the passive periphrastic, a construction made from:

• a gerundive (here audiendus)
• plus a form of sum (here est)

This construction expresses necessity, duty, or something that ought to be done.

So orator audiendus est means something like:

• the speaker must be heard
• the speaker ought to be listened to

It is not just a plain passive like is heard. It adds the idea of must/should.

What exactly is audiendus?

Audiendus is the gerundive of audio, audire.

For learners, the easiest way to understand the gerundive here is:

• it is a verbal adjective
• it carries the idea to be ...-ed
• in this construction, it often means must be ...-ed

So:

• audiendus = to be heard / needing to be heard

Because it is an adjective, it must agree with the noun it goes with. Here it agrees with orator.

Why is orator in the nominative?

Because orator is the grammatical subject of the sentence.