Romani orbem intellegunt.

Romani is the nominative plural form of Romanus, which can mean a Roman or Roman as an adjective.

In this sentence, Romani is being used as a noun and serves as the subject, so it means Romans or the Romans.

Latin does not have a word for the, so Romani can mean either:

• Romans
• the Romans

The context or the English translation tells you which is most natural.

We know because of its case ending.

Romani is nominative plural, and the nominative case is typically used for the subject of the sentence: the person or thing doing the action.

So in Romani orbem intellegunt, Romani is the group doing the understanding.

Because orbem is the accusative singular form, and the accusative case is usually used for the direct object.

The base form is orbis, meaning circle, world, or globe depending on context. But when it is the thing being understood, it has to go into the accusative:

• orbis = nominative singular
• orbem = accusative singular

So:

• orbis intellegit = the world understands
• orbem intellegunt = they understand the world

Intellegunt is a verb in the:

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

So it means they understand.

The ending -unt is a very common sign of a third-person plural present verb in Latin.

Because of the ending -unt.

In Latin, verb endings tell you who is doing the action. Here are some present-tense endings for comparison:

• -o = I
• -s = you (singular)
• -t = he/she/it
• -mus = we
• -tis = you (plural)
• -unt = they

So intellegunt can only mean they understand.

Not as much as in English.

Latin relies heavily on endings rather than word order to show grammatical function. So Romani orbem intellegunt means the same basic thing as:

• Orbem Romani intellegunt
• Intellegunt Romani orbem
• Romani intellegunt orbem

The endings still show:

• Romani = subject
• orbem = direct object
• intellegunt = verb

That said, word order in Latin can still affect emphasis or style.

Because Classical Latin has no definite article.

English distinguishes between:

• Romans
• the Romans

Latin usually does not. A single form like Romani can cover both ideas.

So Latin leaves it to context and translation to decide whether English should use the.

Yes. Romani can be an adjective meaning Roman, as in Roman men if it modifies a masculine plural noun.

But here there is no noun next to it for it to describe, so it is understood as a substantive adjective, meaning the adjective is being used like a noun:

• Romani = the Romans

This is very common in Latin.

Orbis is a third-declension noun.

That matters because third-declension nouns often change in ways that are less predictable for beginners than first- or second-declension nouns. In this case:

• nominative singular: orbis
• accusative singular: orbem

So orbem may look quite different from orbis, but it is the same noun in a different case.

Both spellings are seen, but intellegunt is the more etymological Classical spelling, based on inter + legere.

Many learners also encounter intelligunt, especially in later texts, dictionaries, or textbooks.

So if you have seen intelligere before, do not be confused: intellegunt and intelligunt represent the same verb, to understand.

Yes. Latin often omits subject pronouns because the verb ending already tells you the person and number.

So intellegunt by itself could mean they understand.

Here, however, Romani is included to make clear who the they are:

• intellegunt = they understand
• Romani intellegunt = the Romans understand

A common reconstructed pronunciation would be roughly:

ro-MAH-nee OR-bem in-tel-LEH-goont

A few helpful points:

• Rōmānī has a long ō, long ā, and long ī
• orbem has a hard b sound as written
• intellegunt has a hard g, like in go
• u in -gunt sounds like oo

If you are using macrons, the sentence is:

Rōmānī orbem intellegunt.

The sentence has a very straightforward pattern:

• Romani = subject
• orbem = direct object
• intellegunt = verb

So the structure is:

Subject + Object + Verb

That is a very common Latin order, even though Latin is flexible and can rearrange the words more freely than English.