Arbiter certamen spectat.

Arbiter is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of a sentence.

The verb spectat is also third person singular—it means he/she/it watches or is watching—so it matches a singular subject.

So arbiter is understood as the one doing the action.

Certamen is accusative singular, the case used for the direct object.

In this sentence, the action is spectat (watches), and the thing being watched is certamen, so it is the direct object.

A learner should note one important detail: certamen is a neuter noun, and in many neuter nouns, the nominative and accusative singular have the same form. So the form certamen could be either nominative or accusative in isolation. Here, its role in the sentence shows that it is accusative.

Latin often does not need a separate subject pronoun, because the verb ending already tells you the person and number.

Here, spectat ends in -t, which shows third person singular. So Latin does not need to add is/ea/id (he/she/it) unless there is special emphasis.

So instead of saying something like He watches, Latin can simply say spectat.

The ending -t tells you that the verb is:

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

So spectat means he/she/it watches or is watching.

This is a very useful ending to memorize, because it appears constantly in Latin.

Classical Latin has no articles. That means it does not have separate words for the, a, or an.

So arbiter could mean:

• the judge
• a judge

and certamen could mean:

• the contest
• a contest

Which one is best depends on context or on the translation you have been given.

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

So the sentence could be rearranged, for example:

• Arbiter certamen spectat
• Certamen arbiter spectat
• Spectat arbiter certamen

All of these can still mean the same basic thing, because the forms help show who is doing the action and what is being watched.

That said, word order can still affect emphasis. The version you have here is a very natural and straightforward arrangement.

Arbiter is a third-declension masculine noun.

Its nominative singular ends in -er, but it is not a second-declension noun like puer. It belongs to the third declension, which has a wider variety of forms.

A learner may find it helpful to know a couple of forms:

• nominative singular: arbiter
• genitive singular: arbitri

The genitive helps identify its declension pattern.

Certamen is a third-declension neuter noun.

A few useful things to notice about neuter nouns in Latin:

• nominative and accusative are always the same
• in the plural, nominative and accusative usually end in -a

So here the form certamen looks the same whether it is nominative or accusative, but the sentence structure shows it is the object.

Its genitive singular is certaminis, which shows it belongs to the third declension.

Latin very often places the verb near or at the end of the sentence, especially in simple textbook sentences and in many neutral statements.

So Arbiter certamen spectat follows a very common Latin pattern:

• subject: arbiter
• object: certamen
• verb: spectat

English usually prefers subject-verb-object, but Latin often prefers subject-object-verb.

A common classroom pronunciation would be roughly:

AR-bi-ter cer-TA-men SPEC-tat

A few helpful points:

• c is always hard, like k
• e is always pronounced, never silent
• spectat begins with a real sp- sound, not suh-

So certamen begins with a k sound, not an s sound.

In form alone, certamen could be nominative singular, because neuter nominative and accusative are identical. But in this sentence, arbiter is the more natural subject, and certamen is understood as the object of spectat.

In other words, grammar and meaning together point to:

• arbiter = the one watching
• certamen = the thing watched

So although certamen could theoretically be nominative in another sentence, here it functions as the direct object.