Navis per pontum venit.

• navis = ship; it is the subject
• per = through, across, or by way of
• pontum = sea (here it is the object of per)
• venit = comes / came, depending on context

So the structure is:

subject + prepositional phrase + verb

That is very normal in Latin.

Because navis is in the nominative singular, which is the case usually used for the subject of a sentence.

The dictionary form is navis, navis and it means ship. It is a 3rd-declension noun.

Even though navis ends in -is, here it is not plural. It is singular nominative.

Latin normally does not use articles like English the and a/an.

So navis can mean:

• a ship
• the ship

Which one is best depends on the context or on the translation your course is using.

Because per is a preposition that takes the accusative.

So:

• per + accusative

That means the noun after per has to be accusative.
Here, pontum is accusative singular.

This is a very common pattern in Latin:

• per viam = through the road / along the road
• per agrum = through the field
• per pontum = through/across the sea

No. In this sentence, pontum is from pontus, meaning sea.

A learner might expect something like bridge because of the English word pontoon or because pons is the Latin word for bridge. But if the noun were from pons, pontis (bridge), the accusative singular would be pontem, not pontum.

So:

• pontum = from pontus = sea
• pontem = from pons = bridge

That is an important distinction.

Per often means:

• through
• across
• along
• by way of

In this sentence, the most natural English choice depends on the meaning your course gives. With sea, through the sea may sound a bit odd in English, so a translator might choose something smoother like:

• across the sea
• over the sea
• by way of the sea

But grammatically, per is still the same preposition.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show each word’s role.

So Latin can put the verb at the end very naturally:

• Navis per pontum venit.

English usually prefers:

• The ship comes across the sea.

Putting the verb at the end in Latin can feel especially natural and common, though Latin does not always do that.

Venit is from venio, venire, meaning to come.

It is:

• 3rd person singular
• active voice

So it means:

• he/she/it comes or
• he/she/it came

Since the subject is navis (ship), we translate it as:

• the ship comes or
• the ship came

Yes. In Latin, venit can be either:

• present tense: he/she/it comes
• perfect tense: he/she/it came / has come

These two forms happen to look the same.

Usually, context tells you which one is meant. If your learning material already gives the meaning, then that settles it for this sentence.

Because the verb venit is singular.

If the subject were plural, you would expect a plural verb, for example:

• naves per pontum veniunt = the ships come across the sea

So the singular verb helps confirm that navis is singular.

Yes, navis is feminine in Latin.

That does not usually change the translation here, because English nouns do not normally have grammatical gender. But it matters in Latin if an adjective or pronoun agrees with navis.

For example:

• navis bona = the good ship

Here bona is feminine singular to match navis.

Yes. Depending on context, reasonable translations could include:

• The ship comes across the sea.
• A ship comes across the sea.
• The ship came across the sea.
• The ship is coming by way of the sea.

The exact English wording depends on:

• whether you take venit as present or perfect
• whether you translate per as through, across, or something similar
• whether you choose the or a

• navis → navis, navis = ship
• per → preposition meaning through/across
• pontum → from pontus, -i = sea
• venit → from venio, venire, veni, ventum = come

Knowing the dictionary form helps you identify the case, number, and tense more easily.