Caementa in fundamento sunt.

A word-by-word breakdown is:

• caementa = stones, pieces of rubble, or building stones
• in = in
• fundamento = foundation
• sunt = are

So the structure is basically:

• Caementa = the subject
• in fundamento = a prepositional phrase telling location
• sunt = the verb, are

This is a very common beginner question.

Caementa is a neuter plural noun. In Latin, many neuter nouns of the second declension have:

• singular nominative in -um
• plural nominative in -a

So:

• singular: caementum
• plural: caementa

That means -a here is not feminine singular. It is neuter plural.

Because the subject, caementa, is plural.

Latin verbs agree with their subject in number:

• est = is for a singular subject
• sunt = are for a plural subject

Since caementa means more than one stone/piece of rubble, Latin uses sunt.

We know because:

• caementa is in the nominative plural
• sunt is a plural verb and agrees with it
• in fundamento is a prepositional phrase, not the subject

So the sentence is organized as:

• caementa = subject
• in fundamento = where they are
• sunt = verb

Fundamento is ablative singular.

It is ablative because it follows in in the sense of location:

• in + ablative = in/on/at somewhere
• in + accusative = into/onto somewhere

So in fundamento means in the foundation, meaning location, not motion.

Because of the case of the noun after it.

Latin uses:

• in + ablative for location: in the foundation
• in + accusative for motion toward: into the foundation

Since the form is fundamento and not an accusative form, the meaning is in the foundation, not into the foundation.

Latin usually does not use articles the way English does.

So caementa could be understood as:

• stones
• the stones

And in fundamento could be:

• in a foundation
• in the foundation

The exact article is usually understood from context.

Yes, it is a very natural Latin word order.

Latin often places the verb at the end, so:

• Caementa = subject
• in fundamento = location
• sunt = verb at the end

That said, Latin word order is flexible. Other orders are possible, such as:

• In fundamento caementa sunt
• Sunt caementa in fundamento

These would still mean roughly the same thing, though the emphasis might change.

The singular is caementum.

So:

• caementum = one piece of rubble / one stone / one bit of building material
• caementa = multiple pieces

This is another example of a second-declension neuter noun:

• singular nominative: -um
• plural nominative: -a

Not exactly.

Although the words are related historically, Latin caementa usually refers to chips of stone, quarried pieces, rubble, or building stones, not modern smooth cement in the usual English sense.

So a learner should not automatically assume it means exactly the same thing as modern English cement.

A common classroom pronunciation would be roughly:

kai-MEN-ta in foon-da-MEN-toh soont

More traditionally reconstructed, it would be closer to:

kae-MEN-ta in foon-da-MEN-toh soont

A few helpful points:

• ae often sounds like ai in many teaching systems
• c is always hard, like k
• sunt is pronounced with a clear s, never like z

Its basic meaning is foundation or base.

In many contexts it can mean:

• a literal building foundation
• a base or support
• sometimes a figurative foundation, depending on context

In this sentence, it is most naturally understood as a literal foundation.

Because the sentence says that multiple stones are in one foundation.

There is no need for the location noun to match the subject in number. Latin only requires:

• the verb to agree with the subject
• the noun after in to be in the right case

So it is perfectly normal to have:

• caementa = plural subject
• fundamento = singular object of the preposition

That means: multiple stones are located in a single foundation.