Nautae e portu cras proficiscentur, si tempestas bona erit.

to be

Breakdown of Nautae e portu cras proficiscentur, si tempestas bona erit.

• nauta: the sailor
• bonus: good
• si: if

Questions & Answers about Nautae e portu cras proficiscentur, si tempestas bona erit.

What does nautae mean here, and why does it end in -ae?

Here nautae means the sailors.

The ending -ae is the nominative plural ending of a first-declension noun. Since nautae is the subject of proficiscentur, it has to be in the nominative plural:

• nauta = sailor
• nautae = sailors

So Nautae ... proficiscentur means The sailors ... will set out.

Why is nauta first declension if it refers to men?

In Latin, grammatical declension and biological sex do not always match in the way an English speaker might expect.

Nauta is a first-declension masculine noun. That is completely normal for certain words referring to male professions or roles, especially ones borrowed from Greek or formed in old patterns. Other examples include:

• agricola = farmer
• poēta = poet
• pirāta = pirate

So even though nauta uses first-declension endings, it is usually masculine in meaning.

What case is portu, and why is it not portum?

Portu is ablative singular.

It appears after the preposition e meaning or , and takes the . So: