Discipuli scriptorem viventem libenter audiunt.

The students gladly listen to the living writer.

Breakdown of Discipuli scriptorem viventem libenter audiunt.

• discipulus: the student
• audire: to listen to
• libenter: gladly
• scriptor: the writer

Questions & Answers about Discipuli scriptorem viventem libenter audiunt.

How do I know discipuli is the subject here?

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

Why is scriptorem ending in -em?

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.

What exactly is viventem?

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: