Breakdown of Discipuli scriptorem viventem libenter audiunt.
Questions & Answers about Discipuli scriptorem viventem libenter audiunt.
Because discipuli is nominative plural, and the verb audiunt is also plural: they hear / they listen.
A beginner may notice that discipuli could also, in some contexts, be genitive singular, meaning of the student. But here that would not make good sense syntactically. The sentence needs a subject for audiunt, and discipuli fits perfectly as the students.
So here:
- discipuli = students, nominative plural, the subject
Because scriptorem is accusative singular, the form used for the direct object.
The students are doing the action, and the writer is the one being heard or listened to. So:
- discipuli = the students
- scriptorem = the writer / author
The base form is scriptor. Its accusative singular is scriptorem.
Viventem is the present active participle of vivere, meaning living or alive.
A participle is a verbal adjective. That means it comes from a verb, but it behaves like an adjective and describes a noun.
So here viventem describes scriptorem: