Inopia aquae agricolas terret, sed post pluviam magna copia aquae erit.

The lack of water frightens the farmers, but after the rain there will be a great supply of water.

Breakdown of Inopia aquae agricolas terret, sed post pluviam magna copia aquae erit.

• esse: to be
• sed: but
• aqua: the water
• agricola: the farmer

Questions & Answers about Inopia aquae agricolas terret, sed post pluviam magna copia aquae erit.

Why is aquae in the genitive in both inopia aquae and copia aquae?

Because inopia and copia are nouns that often take the genitive to show of what there is a lack or abundance.

So:

• inopia aquae = lack of water
• copia aquae = supply/abundance of water

This is a very common Latin pattern: a noun followed by a genitive to complete its meaning.

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Why is agricolas in the accusative?

Because agricolas is the direct object of terret.

• terret = frightens
• The thing doing the frightening is inopia aquae
• The people being frightened are agricolas

So the structure is:

• Inopia aquae = the subject
• agricolas = the object
• terret = the verb

Even though English often uses word order to show this, Latin mainly uses case endings.

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Why is terret singular if agricolas is plural?

Because the verb agrees with the subject, not with the object.

Here the subject is :