Qui malum facit, amicitiam laedit.

Here qui means the person who or whoever.

It is a relative pronoun, but in this sentence it does not point back to a separate noun already stated. Instead, it works by itself and means something like:

• he who
• the one who
• whoever

So Qui malum facit means the one who does evil or whoever does evil.

Because the sentence is making a general statement about an individual person: the person who does evil harms friendship.

Latin often uses the singular in this kind of proverb-like statement, just as English can say:

• Whoever does this is wrong
• The person who lies loses trust

So qui is singular because it means the one who in a general sense.

Qui is nominative singular masculine.

You can tell because it is the subject of facit:

• qui = the one who
• facit = does/makes

So qui is the one performing the action.

A helpful way to see the structure is:

• Qui malum facit = the person who does evil
• amicitiam laedit = harms friendship

The whole first part acts as the subject of the second verb.

Because malum is the direct object of facit.

In malum facit, the verb facit means does or commits, and malum is the thing being done:

• facit = does
• malum = evil / wrong

So malum is accusative because it receives the action of the verb.

Yes, in this sentence malum means evil or wrong.

A learner may notice that malum can also mean apple. That is true, but context makes the meaning clear. In Qui malum facit, amicitiam laedit, the sense is obviously does evil, not does an apple.

So this is a good reminder that Latin words can have the same spelling but different meanings, and you often rely on context.

Because malum and male are different kinds of words.

• malum = evil, wrong, a thing/concept
• male = badly, an adverb

So:

• malum facit = does evil / commits wrong
• male facit = acts badly / does something badly

Both are possible Latin in the right context, but they do not mean exactly the same thing. Here the sentence is about doing evil, so malum is the right word.

Amicitiam is the direct object of laedit.

It comes from amicitia, meaning friendship, and here it is in the accusative singular:

• amicitia = friendship
• amicitiam = friendship as the object of a verb

So amicitiam laedit means harms friendship.

Laedit is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from laedo, laedere, meaning to harm, injure, or damage.

So laedit means he/she/it harms.

Here the subject is qui malum facit, so the sense is:

• the one who does evil harms friendship

Because the subject is singular.

The subject is qui, meaning the one who or whoever in a singular, generic sense. Since the subject is singular, the verbs must also be singular:

• qui ... facit
• qui ... laedit

This is normal agreement between subject and verb.

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

This sentence has a very natural Latin arrangement:

• Qui malum facit
• amicitiam laedit

Latin often likes to put the verb near the end of a clause. That is what happens here with both facit and laedit.

English depends much more on word order, but Latin can move words around for emphasis, rhythm, or style.

It is both, in a way.

It is a clause, because it has:

• a subject: qui
• a verb: facit
• an object: malum

But that whole clause also functions as the subject of the main statement:

• Qui malum facit = subject
• amicitiam laedit = predicate

So the sentence means literally:

• The one who does evil harms friendship

This is a very common Latin structure.

Not strictly.

The comma helps an English-speaking learner see the two parts more clearly:

• Qui malum facit
• amicitiam laedit

But ancient Latin manuscripts did not use punctuation the way modern editors do. In a printed text, a comma here is mainly for readability.

So the sentence could appear with or without a comma depending on the editor.

Not necessarily. The present tense here expresses a general truth or habitual statement.

English does the same thing:

• Whoever lies loses trust
• A greedy person harms others

So facit and laedit do not have to mean one specific action happening at this moment. They can mean:

• the person who does evil harms friendship
• whoever does evil harms friendship

This is a very normal use of the present tense in Latin.

Both are possible, depending on the style of English you want.

Possible translations include:

• He who does evil harms friendship
• The one who does evil harms friendship
• Whoever does evil harms friendship

He who sounds more formal or old-fashioned in modern English. Whoever often sounds more natural. Grammatically, though, qui can support either kind of translation here.

Usually amicitia means friendship, but in Latin it can sometimes have a broader sense, such as:

• friendship between people
• friendly relations
• alliance or good relations in a social or political sense

In this sentence, the general idea is that evil action damages friendship or human bonds of friendship.

So the exact nuance can be slightly broader than modern English friendship, depending on context.

The dictionary forms are:

• qui — relative pronoun, basic form often given as qui, quae, quod
• malum — from malum, meaning evil or wrong
• facit — from facio, facere
• amicitiam — from amicitia, amicitiae
• laedit — from laedo, laedere

So a learner breaking the sentence down could label it like this:

• qui = who / the one who
• malum = evil
• facit = does
• amicitiam = friendship
• laedit = harms

A very literal version would be:

The one who does evil harms friendship.

That is already fairly close to natural English. If you wanted to be even more mechanical, you could say:

Who evil does, friendship harms.

But that sounds unnatural in English. So it is better to translate according to the grammar and normal English style rather than sticking too closely to Latin word order.