Tibicen in pompa canit, et pueri eum libenter audiunt.

Tibicen is a noun meaning flute-player, piper, or more generally musician who plays a pipe.

A few useful points:

• It is the subject of canit.
• It is singular: one flute-player.
• It is a third-declension noun.
• Its grammatical gender is usually masculine in a sentence like this, though the form itself does not look obviously masculine to an English speaker.

So in this sentence, tibicen is the person doing the action of canit.

Because in can take different cases depending on the meaning.

Here, in pompa uses the ablative case and means in the procession or during the procession.

A very common rule is:

• in + ablative = in / on a place, or in the course of something
• in + accusative = into / onto a place, showing motion toward it

So:

• in pompa = in the procession
• in pompam would suggest movement into the procession

In this sentence, the musician is not being described as moving into it; he is simply performing in it.

Pompa is in the ablative singular.

Why ablative? Because it follows in in the sense of location or setting:

• in pompa = in the procession

This is from the first-declension noun pompa, pompae.

So the form pompa here is not nominative; it is ablative singular.

Canit comes from cano, canere.

This verb can mean things like:

• sing
• play a musical instrument
• sometimes more broadly make music

In this sentence, because the subject is tibicen, the natural meaning is plays rather than sings. So although the basic dictionary meaning often begins with sing, context tells you that here it means something like plays music or plays the pipe.

It is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice

So tibicen ... canit = the flute-player is playing / plays.

Because pueri is in the nominative plural, which is the normal case for the subject of a finite verb.

Here the structure is:

• pueri = the boys → subject
• eum = him → object
• audiunt = hear / listen to

So pueri eum audiunt means the boys hear him or the boys listen to him.

This is a very common thing English speakers must get used to in Latin: word order is flexible, so you identify roles mainly by case endings, not just by position.

Eum means him.

It is the accusative singular masculine form of the pronoun is, ea, id.

It is used because it is the direct object of audiunt:

• pueri = the boys
• audiunt = hear
• eum = him

So the boys are hearing him, namely the tibicen.

This pronoun agrees in gender and number with the person it refers to:

• masculine
• singular

Latin often uses a pronoun where English might either use a pronoun or repeat the noun.

So instead of saying:

• Tibicen in pompa canit, et pueri tibicinem libenter audiunt

Latin can more naturally say:

• Tibicen in pompa canit, et pueri eum libenter audiunt

That avoids repetition and makes the sentence flow more smoothly. English does exactly the same thing with him.

Libenter is an adverb meaning:

• gladly
• willingly
• with pleasure

It describes how the boys listen.

So:

• pueri eum libenter audiunt = the boys gladly listen to him

A useful pattern to notice is that many Latin adverbs answer questions like:

• How?
• In what manner?

Here, libenter tells you the boys are enjoying what they hear.

Because its subject, pueri, is plural.

Audiunt comes from audio, audire and is:

• third person plural
• present tense
• active voice

So it means they hear or they listen to.

Since pueri means the boys, the verb must also be plural:

• pueri audiunt = the boys hear

This is ordinary subject-verb agreement.

Yes, its core meaning is hear, but in many contexts English translates it more naturally as listen to.

Latin audio covers a range that can overlap with both English verbs:

• hear
• listen to

In this sentence, because the boys are willingly paying attention to a musician, English often prefers listen to:

• pueri eum libenter audiunt = the boys gladly listen to him

But grammatically it is still the normal verb audio with a direct object in the accusative.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because Latin relies heavily on case endings to show grammatical function.

English usually depends on position:

• the boys hear him is different from he hears the boys

Latin can move words around more easily because forms like pueri and eum already show who is doing what.

In this sentence:

• Tibicen in pompa canit
• et pueri eum libenter audiunt

the order is quite natural and readable, but Latin could rearrange parts for emphasis without changing the basic meaning.

For example, placing libenter before or after eum would not necessarily change the core sense; it would mostly affect emphasis or style.

Yes. Et is the basic Latin conjunction meaning and.

Here it simply links the two clauses:

• Tibicen in pompa canit
• et pueri eum libenter audiunt

So the sentence has two coordinated parts:

1. the flute-player plays in the procession
2. the boys gladly listen to him

A simple classroom-style pronunciation would be roughly:

• TIB-i-ken in POM-pa KA-nit, et PU-er-ee E-um li-BEN-ter au-DEE-unt

A few notes:

• c in classical Latin is always hard, like k
• tibicen sounds like tibiken, not like English s
• au in audiunt is a diphthong, like ow in cow, though pronunciation varies by teaching tradition
• pueri is usually said with all the vowels sounded: pu-e-ri

Different teachers use different pronunciation systems, especially classical and ecclesiastical, but the grammar stays the same.