“Tacete et audite,” ait lector.

Because they are plural commands.

In Latin, the 2nd person plural imperative usually ends in -te, so these forms mean you all be quiet and you all listen.

• tacete = be quiet! / keep silent! (said to more than one person)
• audite = listen! / hear! (said to more than one person)

So the speaker is addressing more than one listener.

You would use the singular imperative instead of the plural.

That would be:

Tacē et audī, ait lector.

So:

• tacē = be quiet! to one person
• audī = listen! to one person

The version in your sentence, with -te, clearly shows the speaker is talking to a group.

They are imperatives, not ordinary present indicative forms.

This is a very common thing to check, because English does not mark commands as clearly as Latin does.

Compare:

• tacetis = you all are silent / you all keep quiet
• auditis = you all hear / you all listen

But:

• tacete = be quiet!
• audite = listen!

So -te here is not the same as the -tis of the present indicative.

Ait means he says or she says.

In this sentence it introduces or follows the quotation:

Tacete et audite, ait lector.
= Be quiet and listen, says the reader.

In Latin, ait is very commonly used with direct speech. It is a very frequent narrative verb, especially in simple textbook Latin and in storytelling.

Because Latin word order is more flexible than English word order.

Both of these can mean the same thing:

• ait lector
• lector ait

In this sentence, placing ait before lector is very natural after a quotation. English often does something similar in literary style:

• “Be quiet and listen,” says the reader.

So ait lector sounds quite normal in Latin.

Lector is nominative singular, because it is the subject of ait.

So:

• lector = the reader
• nominative because the reader says the words

It is not an object here; it is the person doing the speaking.

Because Latin usually does not need a separate subject pronoun.

The ending of the verb already tells you who is being addressed.

• tacete = you all be quiet
• audite = you all listen

The you all is built into the verb form, so Latin normally leaves out vos unless it wants extra emphasis.

For example:

• Vos tacete et audite would mean something like you people be quiet and listen, with stronger emphasis on you.

Et simply means and.

It links the two commands:

• tacete = be quiet
• audite = listen

So the reader is giving two instructions:

1. be quiet
2. listen

This is very straightforward Latin.

In restored classical pronunciation, you could say it roughly like this:

• tacēte: tah-KAY-teh
• et: et
• audīte: ow-DEE-teh

A few helpful points:

• c is always hard, like k
• au sounds like ow in cow
• the long vowels are marked in dictionaries and textbooks with macrons:
  • tacēte
  • audīte

So a rough classroom pronunciation would be:

tah-KAY-teh et ow-DEE-teh

Those little lines are called macrons. They show vowel length.

So:

• tacēte has a long ē
• audīte has a long ī

Macrons are very useful for learners because they help with:

• pronunciation
• recognizing verb forms
• seeing patterns in conjugation

But many printed Latin texts leave macrons out, so you may also see:

• tacete
• audite

Both spellings refer to the same words; the version with macrons just gives you more information.

Yes. Ait is grammatically present tense: he says or she says.

However, in English, when translating a narrative passage, people sometimes use said because it sounds more natural in the flow of a story.

So depending on context, you may see:

• “Be quiet and listen,” says the reader.
• “Be quiet and listen,” said the reader.

But the Latin form itself is present.

Yes, it can, depending on context.

The verb audio basically means hear, but in commands it often comes out naturally in English as listen.

So audite could be understood as:

• hear!
• listen!

In this sentence, listen is usually the most natural English choice, because it is paired with be quiet.

Not in the modern sense.

Ancient Latin texts did not originally use punctuation the way modern printed texts do. Editors add commas, quotation marks, and other punctuation to make the sentence easier to read.

So in a modern textbook you may see:

“Tacete et audite,” ait lector.

The punctuation helps you identify:

• the direct speech
• the reporting verb
• the speaker

But it is not something you should think of as an essential part of ancient Latin grammar.

Yes. Ait belongs to a very common verb meaning say, but it behaves a bit irregularly and is often taught as a special form.

For a beginner, the important thing is simply:

• ait = he/she says

You do not need to worry much at first about all its forms; just recognize it as a standard verb used with quotations.

In reading, it is one of those forms worth learning by sight.