Serva e culina egreditur et aquam ad atrium fert.

Because serva is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject of a sentence.

In this sentence, serva is the one who goes out and carries the water, so nominative is the expected case.

For a first-declension noun like serva, the nominative singular form is serva.

This is because egreditur comes from a deponent verb: egredior, egredi, egressus sum.

Deponent verbs are special Latin verbs that:

• have passive-looking forms
• but active meanings

So egreditur looks passive, but it means she goes out or she comes out, not she is gone out.

Grammatically, egreditur is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• from egredior

So it means she goes out / is going out.

Latin often uses a preposition to show motion out of something.

Here, e means out of / from. So:

• e culina = out of the kitchen

Without the preposition, culina by itself would not clearly express that idea.

Also, e takes the ablative case, so culina here is ablative singular.

Both e and ex mean out of / from.

A common tendency is:

• e before many consonants
• ex before vowels or sometimes h

So e culina is perfectly normal.

In many contexts, Latin writers can use either form, but e culina is a very natural choice.

Yes—if macrons are shown, it would normally be written culinā.

The ablative singular of a first-declension noun ends in -ā. But many beginner texts omit macrons, so culina may stand for either:

• culina = nominative
• culinā = ablative

Since e requires the ablative, the form here is understood as culinā, even if the macron is not written.

Because aquam is the direct object of fert.

The verb ferre means to carry / bring, and the thing being carried is put in the accusative case.

So:

• aqua = water
• aquam = water, as the object of the verb

In this sentence, the servant is carrying the water, so Latin uses aquam.

Because ad expresses motion toward a place.

So:

• ad atrium = to the atrium
• in atrio = in the atrium (location, not motion toward it)

Since the servant is carrying the water to the atrium, ad is the right preposition.

The preposition ad takes the accusative case.

So ad atrium means to the atrium, with atrium as accusative singular.

A useful thing to notice is that atrium is a neuter second-declension noun, and in neuter nouns:

• nominative singular = accusative singular

So atrium looks the same in both cases.

Because Latin has no definite or indefinite article.

So Latin does not have separate words for:

• the
• a
• an

A noun like serva can mean:

• a servant
• the servant

The exact sense depends on context.

The same is true for culina, aquam, and atrium.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show grammatical function.

So in:

• aquam ad atrium fert

Latin can place:

• the object aquam
• the prepositional phrase ad atrium
• and the verb fert

in an order that feels natural or emphatic to the writer.

It is very common for the verb to come at the end of the clause, so fert at the end is perfectly normal.

Yes. Latin often leaves out subject pronouns and even explicit subject nouns when they are understood from the verb.

Since egreditur and fert are both 3rd person singular, Latin could simply say something like:

• e culina egreditur et aquam ad atrium fert

and the listener would understand she goes out and carries the water.

The noun serva is included here to make the subject explicit.

Because the two verbs are connected by et and there is only one expressed subject, serva.

So the natural reading is:

• The servant goes out of the kitchen
• and the servant carries water to the atrium

Latin does not need to repeat serva before fert.

Fert is the 3rd person singular present active indicative of ferre, meaning to carry, bear, bring.

So fert means:

• she carries
• she brings

depending on context.

Here, with aquam ad atrium, it is naturally understood as carries / brings water to the atrium.

Yes, broadly speaking. The Latin present tense can cover several English present-time ideas, such as:

• she goes out
• she is going out
• sometimes even she does go out, depending on context

So egreditur is simply present tense, and English may translate it in slightly different ways.

Because they express two different relationships:

• e culina = movement out of a place
• ad atrium = movement toward a place

So the sentence shows both:

1. where the servant comes from
2. where she takes the water to

That is why Latin uses two different prepositions.