Breakdown of Senator prudens dicit cives bonum commune commodo privato praeferre debere.
dicere
to say
civis
the citizen
debere
ought to
prudens
wise
Questions & Answers about Senator prudens dicit cives bonum commune commodo privato praeferre debere.
Why are senator and prudens both in the nominative?
Because prudens describes senator, and adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in case, number, and gender.
- senator = nominative singular masculine
- prudens = nominative singular masculine (or feminine in form, but here masculine in meaning because it describes senator)
So senator prudens means the wise/prudent senator.
What exactly is prudens?
Prudens is an adjective meaning wise, prudent, or sensible.
It belongs to the third declension, so it does not look like a first-and-second-declension adjective such as bonus, bona, bonum. Its nominative singular masculine and feminine are both prudens.
That is why Latin says:
- senator prudens = a wise senator
not something like senator prudus.
Why does the sentence use dicit followed by cives ... debere instead of a word meaning that?
Because Latin often expresses reported speech or thought with an accusative-and-infinitive construction instead of a subordinate clause with that.
So: