Nautae in portu morari volunt, quia tempestas in mari est.

Here nautae is nominative plural, so it means sailors and is the subject of volunt.

This can be confusing because -ae can also be:

• genitive singular: of the sailor
• dative singular: to/for the sailor
• nominative plural: sailors

You tell which one it is from the sentence. Since nautae are the people doing the wanting, it must be nominative plural here.

Nauta, nautae is a good example of a first-declension masculine noun. In Latin, declension and gender are not always the same thing.

So:

• nauta follows first-declension endings
• but it is masculine in gender

This is not unusual for jobs or roles such as:

• nauta = sailor
• agricola = farmer
• poeta = poet

Both phrases use in to mean in, but the noun after in is in the ablative case because it shows location.

The endings are different because the nouns belong to different declensions:

• portus, portus is fourth declension → ablative singular portu
• mare, maris is third declension neuter → ablative singular mari

So both are ablative, even though they look different:

• in portu = in the harbor
• in mari = in the sea

In Latin, in can take two different cases:

• in + ablative = in / on (location)
• in + accusative = into / onto (motion toward)

Here we have:

• in portu
• in mari

Both portu and mari are ablative, so in means in, not into.

If the sentence meant the sailors want to go into the harbor, Latin would use in with the accusative instead.

Morari is a present infinitive, meaning to delay, to stay, or to linger depending on context.

In this sentence, it goes with volunt:

• volunt morari = they want to stay

So morari is the action that the sailors want to do.

Because morari is a deponent verb.

Deponent verbs:

• have passive-looking forms
• but active meanings

The dictionary form is moror, morari, moratus sum. Even though morari looks passive, it means to stay/delay, not to be stayed.

So:

• normal active infinitive often ends in -re
• deponent infinitive often ends in -ri

This is one of the important patterns Latin learners have to get used to.

Volunt means they want. It is the third person plural present tense of volo, velle.

Latin often uses volo + infinitive, just like English uses want to + verb:

• volunt morari = they want to stay

So:

• volunt = the finite verb
• morari = the infinitive that completes its meaning

Quia means because and introduces the reason:

• quia tempestas in mari est = because there is a storm at sea / because the storm is in the sea

Without quia, the connection between the two ideas would be much less clear. Quia tells you directly that the second part explains the first.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical relationships.

So these are all possible in Latin, with slightly different emphasis:

• tempestas in mari est
• in mari tempestas est
• est tempestas in mari

The version here puts est at the end, which is very common in Latin prose. The basic meaning stays the same.

Its basic meaning is storm, bad weather, or weather conditions depending on context.

In this sentence, the natural sense is clearly storm or rough weather, because it explains why the sailors want to remain in the harbor.

So a learner should remember that tempestas can sometimes be a bit broader than just one English word.

Classical Latin has no definite article and no indefinite article in the way English does.

So:

• nautae can mean sailors or the sailors
• portu can mean in a harbor or in the harbor
• tempestas can mean a storm or the storm

You decide from context which English article to use in translation.

It breaks down like this:

• Nautae = subject
• in portu = where they want to stay
• morari volunt = main verb idea, want to stay
• quia = introduces a reason
• tempestas in mari est = the reason, there is a storm at sea

So the sentence has:

1. a main clause: Nautae in portu morari volunt
2. a subordinate clause of reason: quia tempestas in mari est

Yes. In natural English, at sea is often the best translation here.

Latin literally says in the sea, but English usually prefers:

• because there is a storm at sea

That is a good reminder that translation should reflect natural English, not just word-for-word substitution.