Aqua viatoribus deficit.

the water

Breakdown of Aqua viatoribus deficit.

• viator: the traveler
• deficere: to fail; give out

Questions & Answers about Aqua viatoribus deficit.

What case is viatoribus, and why is it not accusative?

Viatoribus is dative plural of viator, viatoris (traveler).

With deficit in this sentence, Latin uses the dative for the person affected: the travelers are the ones to whom water is lacking.

So the structure is roughly:

• aqua = water
• viatoribus = to/for the travelers
• deficit = is lacking / fails

A very literal sense is Water is lacking to the travelers.

What form is deficit?

Deficit is:

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

It comes from deficere.

It is singular because its subject, aqua, is singular.

Why is aqua singular? In English we often think of water as a mass noun.

Latin works similarly here. Aqua is a singular noun meaning water as a substance, not one water.

So singular aqua is perfectly natural, just like English water in a sentence such as Water is scarce.

How do we know aqua is the subject?