Fidicen citharam canit, et convivae eum libenter audiunt.

Fidicen is a noun meaning a stringed-instrument player or musician. In this sentence, because of citharam, it means the person who is playing the cithara.

Grammatically, fidicen is:

• nominative singular
• third declension
• the subject of canit

So fidicen canit means the musician plays.

Because citharam is the direct object of canit.

Latin marks the direct object with the accusative case. For a first-declension noun like cithara, the accusative singular ends in -am:

• cithara = nominative singular
• citharam = accusative singular

So:

• cithara canit would not work for this meaning
• citharam canit = he plays the cithara

It can mean either, depending on context.

The verb cano, canere often has a broad musical sense: to sing, to sound, or to play. When it takes a musical instrument as its object, it can naturally mean play.

So in this sentence:

• citharam canit = he plays the cithara

A learner may expect a more literal sings, but Latin often uses cano more flexibly than English uses sing.

Because Latin has no articles.

So Latin does not have separate words for:

• the
• a
• an

That means:

• fidicen can mean a musician or the musician
• citharam can mean a cithara or the cithara
• convivae can mean guests or the guests

English has to choose one in translation, but Latin leaves it to the context.

Because of the verb audiunt.

The form convivae could, in isolation, be several things, including:

• nominative plural = guests
• genitive singular = of the guest
• dative singular = to/for the guest

But here audiunt is third person plural: they hear / they listen.

So convivae must be nominative plural, the subject of audiunt:

• convivae audiunt = the guests hear/listen

Eum means him.

It is:

• masculine
• accusative singular
• a form of the pronoun is, ea, id

Here it refers back to fidicen, the musician.

So:

• convivae eum audiunt = the guests hear him or the guests listen to him

Audiunt tells you who is doing the action, but not who is being heard.

The ending -unt shows that the subject is they. But Latin still needs an object if you want to say they hear him.

So:

• audiunt = they hear / they listen
• eum audiunt = they hear him / listen to him

Latin often leaves out subject pronouns, because the verb ending already shows the subject. But object pronouns like eum are used when needed.

Because Latin does not always use the same construction as English.

The verb audio can take a direct object in the accusative:

• eum audiunt = literally they hear him

In good English, depending on context, that may be translated as:

• they hear him
• they listen to him

So Latin does not need a preposition here, even though English often does.

Libenter means gladly, willingly, or with pleasure.

It is an adverb, so it modifies the verb audiunt:

• convivae eum libenter audiunt = the guests gladly listen to him

A common beginner question is whether libenter describes the guests. Indirectly, yes, but grammatically it describes how they listen.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order, because the endings show each word’s job in the sentence.

This sentence could be rearranged in several ways without changing the basic meaning, for example:

• Fidicen citharam canit, et convivae eum libenter audiunt.
• Citharam fidicen canit, et eum convivae libenter audiunt.
• Et convivae eum audiunt libenter.

The given order is perfectly natural. A few things to notice:

• eum comes early in its clause, which is common for short pronouns
• audiunt comes at the end, which is also very common in Latin

So the order is meaningful and natural, but not as rigid as English word order.