Breakdown of Потеряв пресную воду, матросы терпели голод и жажду.
и
and
вода
water
потерять
to lose (perfective)
жажда
thirst
Questions & Answers about Потеряв пресную воду, матросы терпели голод и жажду.
Why use Потеряв instead of the regular past tense Потеряли?
Потеряв is a perfective verbal adverb, meaning "having lost". It links a completed background action directly to the subject (матросы) doing the main action. If you used Потеряли, you would need two separate clauses connected by a conjunction, such as Матросы потеряли пресную воду и терпели...
How could we add "during the voyage" to this sentence using the compound prepositions from this lesson?
You could add в течение плавания or в продолжение плавания to describe the duration of their suffering. Both mean "during" or "for the duration of" and require the Genitive case. For example: ...матросы терпели голод и жажду в течение плавания.
Why is "fresh water" translated as пресную воду rather than свежую воду?
Пресная вода specifically refers to "freshwater" in the geographical sense, meaning non-saline water as opposed to ocean saltwater. Свежая вода just means water that is physically fresh, like a recently poured or cool glass of water. On a ship, the lack of пресная вода is the real issue.
Why do we use the imperfective verb терпели for the main action?