Nauta undam spectat.

Because nauta is in the nominative singular, which is the form typically used for the subject of the sentence.

In this sentence:

• nauta = subject
• undam = direct object
• spectat = verb

So nauta is the one doing the action.

The ending -am shows that undam is in the accusative singular. In Latin, the direct object usually takes the accusative case.

So:

• unda = a wave / the wave, as a subject
• undam = a wave / the wave, as a direct object

Since the sailor is watching the wave, wave is the thing being watched, so Latin uses undam.

Spectat is a verb in the:

• present tense
• third person singular
• active voice
• indicative mood

That means it means he/she/it watches, is watching, or sometimes looks at, depending on context.

Because the subject is nauta, the full sense is the sailor watches or the sailor is watching.

The -t is the personal ending for third person singular in the present tense.

So:

• specto = I watch
• spectas = you watch
• spectat = he/she/it watches

Since nauta is one sailor, spectat matches it as a singular subject.

Latin usually has no articles. That means there is no separate word for the or a/an.

So:

• nauta can mean a sailor or the sailor
• undam can mean a wave or the wave

You figure out which is more natural from context.

This is a very common beginner question. Nauta is a first-declension noun, so it has endings that look like many feminine nouns. But its grammatical gender is masculine.

So even though it ends in -a, it is treated as masculine.

This happens with some jobs or roles, especially in the first declension, such as:

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

So the ending does not always tell you the gender automatically.

Yes. Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show what each word is doing.

So all of these could mean basically the same thing:

• Nauta undam spectat
• Undam nauta spectat
• Spectat nauta undam

The core meaning stays the same because:

• nauta is still nominative
• undam is still accusative
• spectat is still the verb

Changing the order usually changes emphasis, not the basic meaning.

The endings show that.

• nauta = nominative singular
• undam = accusative singular
• spectat = third person singular verb

If it were plural, the forms would look different. For example:

• nautae = sailors
• undas = waves
• spectant = they watch

So this sentence is clearly about one sailor and one wave.

The dictionary forms are usually:

• nauta, nautae = sailor
• unda, undae = wave
• specto, spectare, spectavi, spectatum = watch, look at

For a beginner, the most important thing is to recognize that the form in the sentence may be different from the dictionary form because Latin changes word endings.

In a common reconstructed Classical pronunciation, you could say it roughly like:

NOW-tah OON-dam SPEK-taht

A few helpful points:

• au in nauta sounds like ow in cow
• u is pronounced like oo
• c in spectat is always hard, like k
• the final -t is pronounced clearly

So spectat sounds like spek-taht, not like an English soft c word.

Either can be correct. The Latin present tense often covers both simple present and present progressive in English.

So spectat can mean:

• watches
• is watching
• sometimes looks at

The best choice depends on the context, not just the form of the verb itself.