Stillicidium sub imbrice cadit.

Stillicidium is nominative singular here, and it is the subject of cadit.

A learner might hesitate because stillicidium is a neuter noun, and in many neuter nouns the nominative and accusative singular look the same. But in this sentence, the verb cadit means falls and needs a subject, not a direct object. So stillicidium is understood as the thing that falls.

Cadit means falls or is falling.

It is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from cadere, meaning to fall.

Because the subject stillicidium is singular, the verb is also singular: cadit = it falls.

Because sub can take either the ablative or the accusative, depending on the meaning.

• sub + ablative = under in the sense of location or position
• sub + accusative = to under or into a position under, showing motion toward

Here, sub imbrice means under the roof tile, describing where the dripping happens, not movement toward that place. So the ablative is used.

Imbrice is ablative singular.

It comes from the noun imbrex, imbricis, which means roof tile (especially a curved tile). Since it follows sub in a location sense, it appears in the ablative.

So:

• dictionary form: imbrex
• genitive: imbricis
• ablative singular: imbrice

Stillicidium can refer to dripping water, a drip, or water falling drop by drop, especially from a roof or eaves.

So in this sentence it suggests something like:

• dripping water falls under the roof tile
• a drip falls beneath the roof tile
• water drips under the tile

The exact English wording may vary, but the basic image is water dripping down from the roof area.

Because Latin has no articles.

Latin does not have separate words for the or a/an the way English does. Whether you translate a noun as the drip, a drip, or simply dripping water depends on context.

So stillicidium could be understood in English in several ways, even though the Latin uses just one word.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical roles.

So Stillicidium sub imbrice cadit is a natural sentence, but other orders could also work, such as:

• Sub imbrice stillicidium cadit
• Cadit stillicidium sub imbrice

The basic meaning stays the same because:

• stillicidium is the subject
• sub imbrice is the prepositional phrase
• cadit is the verb

That said, word order can affect emphasis. Putting stillicidium first gives it some prominence, and placing cadit at the end is very common in Latin.

Grammatically, sub imbrice most directly means under the roof tile.

However, depending on the picture or context, English may sometimes express the idea more naturally as something like from under the tile if the dripping is emerging from that place. Latin here does not explicitly say from; it simply gives the location with sub + ablative.

So the core grammatical meaning is under the roof tile, even if a freer English translation might sound a little different.

In a restored classical pronunciation, approximately:

stil-li-KID-ee-um sub IM-bri-ke KA-dit

A few helpful points:

• c is always hard, like k
• imbrice ends with -ke, not -see
• cadit begins with ka-
• the stress is on -KID- in stillicidium
• the stress is on IM- in imbrice
• the stress is on KA- in cadit

So the sentence sounds much more like ka-dit than English cadit might suggest at first glance.