Panis ex farina et aqua fit.

Because panis is the thing being produced, not the thing doing the producing.

• facit = makes / does
• fit = is made / becomes

So:

• pistor panem facit = the baker makes bread
• panis fit = bread is made

In this sentence, Latin presents bread as the result, so fit is the natural choice.

Here fit means is made or comes into being.

It comes from the verb fio, which often works as the passive-style counterpart of facio (to make / do). Very literally, fit can also suggest becomes or comes to be.

So Panis ex farina et aqua fit is not just mechanically bread is made from flour and water, but also carries the idea bread comes into being from flour and water.

Panis is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative singular.

The verb fit is third person singular present, so it matches a singular subject:

• panis = bread
• fit = is made

So the grammar is:

• Panis = subject
• fit = verb

Because ex is a preposition meaning out of / from, and in Latin it regularly takes the ablative case.

So:

• ex farina = from flour
• ex aqua = from water

With et joining them, you get:

• ex farina et aqua = from flour and water

In fully marked spelling with macrons, these would be farinā and aquā, showing the ablative more clearly.

Because they are not direct objects.

The sentence is not saying that bread does something to flour and water. Instead, flour and water show the material/source from which bread is made. After ex, Latin uses the ablative, not the accusative.

So:

• accusative would usually suggest a direct object
• ablative after ex shows source/material

Because ex is especially natural for the idea out of or made from.

For materials or ingredients, ex is very common:

• statua ex marmore fit = a statue is made from marble
• panis ex farina et aqua fit = bread is made from flour and water

Other Latin prepositions can also mean from in some contexts, but ex is the best fit here for the material something comes out of.

Because Classical Latin does not have articles like English does.

So panis can mean:

• bread
• the bread
• a bread

The context tells you which is most natural in translation. The same is true for farina and aqua.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show how the words function.

Putting the verb at the end is very common in Latin, especially in straightforward statements. So:

• Panis ex farina et aqua fit

is a very natural Latin order.

You could rearrange the words and still keep the same basic meaning, for example:

• Ex farina et aqua panis fit

The endings and the preposition ex keep the structure clear.

Because farina et aqua are not the subject.

The subject is only panis, which is singular. The phrase ex farina et aqua is just a prepositional phrase explaining the material.

So the sentence means:

• Bread is made
• from flour and water

Since bread is singular, the verb is singular: fit.

Not exactly in the same way as many other Latin verbs.

For most verbs, the passive is built from passive endings. But fio is a special verb that often serves as the passive or passive-like partner of facio.

So instead of expecting something like a present passive of facio here, Latin commonly uses fio:

• facio = I make
• fio = I am made / I become

That is why fit is so important to recognize as its own verb.

Only if translated too literally. In natural English, that sounds wrong.

Latin fit does contain the idea becomes / comes to be, but in this sentence the normal idiomatic meaning is:

• Bread is made from flour and water

So a very literal explanation may help you understand the grammar, but the best English translation is the ordinary one: bread is made from flour and water.