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Learn Hardcore Latin: Singuli cives suffragium ferunt. - Each citizen casts a vote.

Hardcore Latin
/Lesson 47
/Singuli cives suffragium ferunt.

Singuli cives suffragium ferunt.

Word

Singuli cives suffragium ferunt.

Meaning

Each citizen casts a vote.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Lesson

Breakdown of Singuli cives suffragium ferunt.

suffragium ferre

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Questions & Answers about Singuli cives suffragium ferunt.

Why is singuli plural if the English idea is each citizen, which sounds singular?

Because singuli is a distributive numeral/adjective in Latin. It means one each or one by one.

So Latin expresses the idea as something like:

singuli cives = citizens individually, citizens one by one

English often translates that naturally as each citizen, even though Latin uses a plural form.

This is a very common point of confusion for English speakers: Latin sometimes uses a plural expression with a distributive sense where English prefers a singular phrase.

Why is it cives and not civis?

Because cives is the nominative plural of civis.

Since singuli is plural, the noun it modifies must also be plural:

singulus civis would not be the normal expression here
singuli cives is the standard distributive construction

So:

civis = citizen
cives = citizens

And here cives is the subject of ferunt.

What case is cives, and how do I know?

Cives is nominative plural.

You can tell from the sentence structure:

ferunt = they carry / they bear / they cast
the people doing the action are the citizens
therefore cives is the subject
subjects are normally in the nominative

So singuli cives is the full subject: the citizens individually / each citizen.

What case is suffragium, and why?

Suffragium is accusative singular.

It is the direct object of ferunt, the thing being carried/brought/cast.

In this expression:

suffragium ferre = to cast a vote

So the grammar is:

singuli cives = subject
suffragium = direct object
ferunt = verb

Why does Latin use ferunt here? Doesn’t fero usually mean carry or bear?

Yes. Fero literally means carry, bear, or bring.

But Latin often uses fixed expressions, and suffragium ferre is an idiom meaning:

to cast a vote
literally something like to bring/submit a vote

So this is not a random use of fero. It is a standard political/legal expression.

This kind of thing is very common in Latin: the literal meaning of the verb helps, but the full phrase has a more specific idiomatic sense.

Why is the verb ferunt plural?

Because the subject is plural:

singuli cives = the citizens individually

Even though English may translate the idea as each citizen, Latin is still using a plural subject, so the verb must also be plural.

So:

fert = he/she carries
ferunt = they carry

Here Latin says, in effect, the citizens, one by one, cast their vote.

What form of the verb is ferunt?

Ferunt is:

3rd person plural
present tense
indicative mood
active voice

It comes from the highly irregular verb fero, ferre, tuli, latum.

So ferunt means they bear/carry, and in this idiom, they cast.

A learner might expect a more regular verb form, but fero is irregular and must simply be learned as one of Latin’s important common verbs.

Why is suffragium singular and not plural?

Latin often uses the singular in this idiom because the idea is a vote, taken individually.

So suffragium ferre means to cast a vote. With a plural subject, the sense is:

the citizens each cast a vote

Latin does not need to make suffragium plural just because multiple people are involved. The distributive idea already comes from singuli.

Why is there no word for the or a in the sentence?

Because Latin has no articles.

There is no direct equivalent of English the or a/an in ordinary Latin grammar. Whether a noun is definite or indefinite is usually understood from context.

So:

cives can mean citizens or the citizens
suffragium can mean a vote or the vote, depending on context

That is perfectly normal in Latin.

Could the words be put in a different order?

Yes. Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

So the following could all be possible, with slightly different emphasis:

Singuli cives suffragium ferunt
Cives singuli suffragium ferunt
Suffragium singuli cives ferunt

The version you have is a very natural one. Putting singuli first gives it some emphasis: individually, one by one, each.

So word order in Latin often affects focus or style more than basic grammatical meaning.

Is singuli the same as omnes?

No.

omnes cives = all the citizens
singuli cives = the citizens one by one, each citizen

The difference is important:

omnes stresses the group as a whole
singuli stresses the individuals separately

So singuli cives suffragium ferunt does not just mean all the citizens vote. It emphasizes that they do so individually.

Could Latin also say unusquisque civis for each citizen?

Yes, Latin can use expressions like unusquisque civis, and that is closer to the singular phrasing English uses.

But singuli cives is a very normal and elegant Latin way to express a distributive idea. It often feels more like:

citizens one by one
the citizens individually

So both can express something like each citizen, but singuli has its own specifically distributive flavor.

Can you break down every word in the sentence?

Yes:

singuli
- distributive numeral/adjective
- nominative masculine plural
- agrees with cives
- means one each, one by one, individual
cives
- from civis, civis
- nominative plural
- subject of the verb
- means citizens
suffragium
- noun, neuter singular
- here accusative singular
- direct object of ferunt
- means vote
ferunt
- from fero, ferre
- 3rd person plural present indicative active
- literally they carry/bear
- in this phrase: they cast

So the sentence is grammatically very compact, but each word is doing a clear job.

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