Aqua e foramine stillat.

Aqua is nominative singular.

In this sentence, aqua is the subject — the thing doing the action of stillat. Since Latin usually puts the subject in the nominative case, we get aqua.

Because e takes the ablative case.

The dictionary form is foramen (a hole, opening), but after the preposition e/ex (out of, from), the noun must be ablative. The ablative singular of foramen is foramine.

So:

• foramen = nominative singular
• foramine = ablative singular

E means out of or from. It is used with the ablative to show movement or source from inside something.

So e foramine means out of the hole/opening or from the opening.

That fits naturally with stillat, since dripping happens from some source.

Both e and ex mean the same thing here: out of, from.

In practice:

• e is commonly used before consonants
• ex is commonly used before vowels, and often before h

Since foramine begins with a consonant (f), e foramine is the expected form.

Stillat is:

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

It comes from the verb stillo, stillare, meaning to drip or to trickle.

So stillat means drips, is dripping, or does drip, depending on context.

Because the subject, aqua, is singular.

Even though English sometimes treats water as a mass substance rather than counting it as one thing, in Latin aqua is a singular noun here. So the verb must also be singular:

• aqua stillat = the water drips

If the subject were plural, the verb would also be plural.

Latin has no articles.

So a noun like aqua can mean:

• water
• the water
• some water

And foramine can mean:

• a hole
• the hole
• an opening
• the opening

The exact English translation depends on context.

Not as much as in English.

Latin word order is fairly flexible because the endings show the grammatical roles. So these would all be understandable Latin with roughly the same basic meaning:

• Aqua e foramine stillat.
• E foramine aqua stillat.
• Stillat aqua e foramine.

That said, the original order is simple and natural: subject + prepositional phrase + verb.

Foramen means hole, opening, or aperture.

It is a fairly general word. Depending on context, e foramine could mean:

• from a hole
• out of an opening
• through an opening

In this sentence, hole or opening is the most natural choice.

Foramen is a third-declension neuter noun.

Its stem is foramin-, which is why the ablative singular is foramine.

A few useful forms are:

• nominative singular: foramen
• genitive singular: foraminis
• ablative singular: foramine

This is a very common pattern for third-declension neuter nouns.

A careful Classical pronunciation would be approximately:

AH-kwa eh fo-RAH-mi-neh STIL-lat

A few points:

• aqua = AH-kwa
• e = a short eh
• foramine has four syllables: fo-RA-mi-ne
• stillat has the stress on the first syllable: STIL-lat

So the whole sentence flows as:

AH-kwa eh fo-RAH-mi-neh STIL-lat

Yes.

Latin present tense often covers several English possibilities, such as:

• drips
• is dripping
• does drip

Which one sounds best depends on context. In a basic sentence like this, drips is usually the most straightforward translation.