Nauta navem in aquam deducit.

the water

Breakdown of Nauta navem in aquam deducit.

• nauta: the sailor
• in: into
• navis: the ship

Questions & Answers about Nauta navem in aquam deducit.

How do I know that nauta is the subject?

Because nauta is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject of a sentence.

Here:

• nauta = the sailor
• deducit = leads / brings down / launches
• so nauta deducit = the sailor leads / launches

Latin often shows the job of a word by its ending, not by its position.

Why is it navem and not navis?

Because navem is accusative singular, the case used for the direct object.

The ship is the thing being acted on:

• the sailor launches the ship

So:

• nominative: navis = ship as subject
• accusative: navem = ship as object

In this sentence, the ship is not doing the action; it is receiving it.

Why is it in aquam instead of in aqua?

Because with in, Latin uses different cases depending on the meaning:

• in + accusative = into, onto, toward
• in + ablative = in, on, inside (location)

Here the idea is movement into the water, so Latin uses the accusative:

• in aquam = into the water

If it were just location, it would be:

• in aqua = in the water