Quadrigae praecipites currunt.

Quadrigae is the plural of quadriga, a noun meaning a four-horse chariot or sometimes the team of four horses that pulls it.

So in this sentence, quadrigae refers to chariots or four-horse teams, depending on the context.

Because the verb is currunt, which is third person plural: they run.

That tells you the subject must be plural, so quadrigae here is understood as nominative plural: the chariots / the teams.

This is helpful because quadrigae could have more than one possible form in isolation, but the verb makes the function clear here.

Yes, by itself quadrigae could be:

• nominative plural = chariots
• genitive singular = of a four-horse chariot
• dative singular = to/for a four-horse chariot

But in Quadrigae praecipites currunt, it must be nominative plural, because it is the subject of currunt.

Because praeceps, praecipitis is a third-declension adjective, not a first/second-declension one.

Its nominative plural masculine/feminine form is praecipites.

Since quadrigae is feminine plural, the adjective must agree with it, so Latin uses:

• quadrigae — nominative plural feminine
• praecipites — nominative plural feminine

Even though the endings look different, they still agree, because they belong to different declension patterns.

Praecipites can mean things like:

• headlong
• rushing
• rapid
• reckless
• hurried

The exact shade depends on context. With chariots, it often suggests something like rushing wildly or speeding headlong.

Because the subject is plural.

• currit = he/she/it runs
• currunt = they run

Since quadrigae is plural, the verb must also be plural: currunt.

Yes. In Latin, curro, currere literally means to run, but it can also be used of things that move swiftly, including vehicles such as chariots.

So Latin can say that chariots run where natural English might prefer race, speed along, or drive.

Because Latin has no definite article and no indefinite article.

So quadrigae can mean:

• the chariots
• chariots

Which one sounds better depends on the context.

Yes, it could come before it.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order, because the endings show the grammatical relationships. So all of these are possible in principle:

• Quadrigae praecipites currunt
• Praecipites quadrigae currunt

The version you have is perfectly normal. Putting the adjective after the noun is very common in Latin.

Because both quadrigae and praecipites are nominative plural feminine, and they go together as noun + adjective.

The actual noun is quadrigae.
The adjective praecipites describes it.

So the structure is:

• Quadrigae = subject noun
• praecipites = adjective modifying the subject
• currunt = verb

In other words: The rushing chariots run.

They are:

• quadriga, quadrigae — four-horse chariot
• praeceps, praecipitis — headlong, rushing, steep
• curro, currere — run

Those are the forms you would normally look up in a dictionary.

Yes. Currunt is present tense: they run.

Depending on context, English might translate that in several ways:

• they run
• they are running
• they race

Latin present tense can cover more than one English present-time expression.

It is:

subject + adjective + verb

More specifically:

• Quadrigae — subject noun, nominative plural
• praecipites — adjective agreeing with the subject
• currunt — plural verb

So this is a very straightforward sentence showing agreement and subject-verb matching.