Questions & Answers about Aquila per aethera volat.
What case is aquila, and how do I know it is the subject?
Aquila is nominative singular. It is the subject because the sentence is an active statement, and in Latin the subject of an active verb is normally in the nominative case. The verb volat is also third person singular, so it matches a singular subject such as aquila.
What does per mean here?
Per means through or across. It introduces the phrase per aethera, which tells you the path or space through which the eagle is flying.
Why is aethera in the accusative?
Because per takes the accusative case. After many Latin prepositions, the noun must appear in a particular case, and per is one of the prepositions that always takes the accusative.
Why does aethera end in -a if it is accusative? Shouldn’t that be a nominative ending?
This is a very common point of confusion. Aethera is not a first-declension noun like aquila. Its dictionary form is aether, aetheris, a third-declension noun borrowed from Greek. In this sentence, aethera is a Greek-style accusative singular form. So the ending -a here does not mean nominative first declension.
Is aethera an ordinary Latin form, or is it poetic?
It is somewhat poetic or elevated. A learner will often notice that aether means the upper air, bright sky, or heavens, not just everyday sky. The form aethera itself also has a literary feel. So the sentence sounds a bit more elevated than a plain everyday sentence.
What form is volat?
Volat is the third person singular present active indicative of volare, meaning to fly. So it means he/she/it flies or is flying. Here it agrees with aquila.
Can volat mean both flies and is flying?
Yes. Latin present tense often covers both ideas. Depending on context, volat can be translated as flies, is flying, or sometimes even does fly. English has to choose one form, but Latin does not always make that distinction.
Why is there no word for the or an?
Latin does not have articles like English the or an. So aquila can mean the eagle, an eagle, or simply eagle, depending on the context.
Does the word order matter? Could the words be arranged differently?
Yes, the words could be arranged differently. Latin word order is more flexible than English because the endings show the grammatical roles. For example, Aquila volat per aethera would mean the same thing. The order Aquila per aethera volat is perfectly natural and puts the verb at the end, which is very common in Latin.
Is aquila feminine, and does that mean the eagle is female?
Aquila is grammatically feminine, but that does not necessarily mean the actual eagle is biologically female. In Latin, grammatical gender and natural sex are not always the same thing. The noun belongs to the feminine gender class, but the sentence itself does not tell you whether the eagle is male or female.
How should I pronounce Aquila per aethera volat?
In a Classical-style pronunciation, you could say:
AH-kwi-la per EYE-the-ra WO-lat
A few helpful points:
- qu sounds like kw
- ae sounds like ai in aisle
- v in Classical Latin sounds like w, so volat sounds like WO-lat
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