Aqua per fundamentum manat.

Aqua is nominative singular, which is the form normally used for the subject of the sentence.

So in Aqua per fundamentum manat, aqua is the thing doing the action of manat (flows).

A quick breakdown:

• aqua = water
• nominative singular
• first declension, feminine

Because per takes the accusative case.

So:

• per fundamentum = through the foundation or through the base
• fundamentum is accusative singular

If you used fundamento, that would be ablative/dative singular, and it would not fit with per.

Per takes the accusative.

This is a very common Latin preposition rule:

• per + accusative = through, by way of, sometimes along

So here:

• per fundamentum = through the foundation

Manat is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from the verb mano, manare, meaning to flow or to trickle.

So manat means:

• it flows
• it is flowing (depending on context)

Because the subject is aqua, the sense is the water flows.

The dictionary forms are:

• aqua, aquae — water
• per — through
• fundamentum, fundamenti — foundation, base
• mano, manare — to flow

This is useful because Latin words often appear in sentences in forms different from the form you memorize in vocabulary lists.

Here is the grammatical classification:

• aqua → first declension noun
• fundamentum → second declension neuter noun
• mano → first conjugation verb

That helps explain the forms:

• aqua = nominative singular
• fundamentum = accusative singular
• manat = 3rd person singular present

Latin usually does not have articles like English the or a/an.

So aqua can mean:

• water
• the water
• sometimes even some water

And fundamentum can mean:

• a foundation
• the foundation

You decide from the context which English translation sounds best.

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order, because the endings show the grammatical roles.

So all of these could mean roughly the same thing:

• Aqua per fundamentum manat.
• Per fundamentum aqua manat.
• Aqua manat per fundamentum.

The original order is perfectly natural, but Latin often puts the verb near the end.

Putting the verb at the end is very common in Latin, though it is not required.

Latin often prefers an order like:

• subject + other information + verb

So:

• Aqua = subject
• per fundamentum = prepositional phrase
• manat = verb

This gives the sentence a normal Latin feel, but other orders are possible.

Yes. Per often means through, but depending on context it can also mean:

• along
• by means of
• by way of
• sometimes during in certain expressions

In this sentence, the most natural meaning is through.

Often, yes. Fundamentum can mean:

• foundation
• base
• bottom support
• more figuratively, basis or groundwork

In this sentence, it most likely has a literal physical sense, since water is flowing through it.

In a classical-style pronunciation, you could say it roughly like this:

• aqua = AH-kwa
• per = per
• fundamentum = foon-da-MEN-toom
• manat = MAH-nat

So the whole sentence is approximately:

AH-kwa per foon-da-MEN-toom MAH-nat

A few notes:

• qu is pronounced like kw
• Latin u is like oo
• the stress in fundamentum falls on men

No. Aqua here is singular.

The plural would be aquae.

Even though English water is usually treated as a mass noun, Latin still uses singular and plural forms grammatically. In this sentence, the form is clearly singular.

Yes. Both are possible.

Because Latin has no article, aqua could be translated as:

• water
• the water

And fundamentum could be:

• a foundation
• the foundation

So the exact English wording depends on the context, not on anything explicitly stated in the Latin sentence.