Femina egregia urbem regit.

Because femina is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject.

• femina = woman in the nominative singular
• egregia matches femina and describes it
• urbem is in the accusative singular, which marks the direct object
• regit is he/she/it rules

So the grammar tells you that the distinguished woman is doing the action, and the city is receiving it.

Latin relies much more on word endings than English does.

Because urbem is the accusative singular form of urbs.

The dictionary form is:

• urbs = city

But in this sentence, city is the direct object of regit (rules), so it must be in the accusative:

• nominative: urbs
• accusative: urbem

This is a very common thing in Latin: the word changes form depending on its job in the sentence.

Because egregia is an adjective agreeing with femina.

In Latin, adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• femina is feminine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective must also be:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

That gives egregia.

The dictionary form is usually given as:

• egregius, egregia, egregium

This shows the masculine, feminine, and neuter nominative singular forms.

So:

• egregius = masculine
• egregia = feminine
• egregium = neuter

Since it describes femina, the feminine form egregia is used.

Regit is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from the verb rego, regere, rexi, rectum, meaning to rule, to guide, or to govern.

So regit means:

• he rules
• she rules
• it rules

In this sentence, since the subject is femina, it means she rules.

Because Latin normally does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So:

• femina can mean a woman or the woman
• urbem can mean a city or the city

You figure out which is meant from the context.

That can feel strange to English speakers at first, but it is completely normal in Latin.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

So both of these are possible:

• femina egregia
• egregia femina

Both can mean the distinguished woman.

Often, adjective placement can create a slightly different emphasis or style, but not necessarily a major change in basic meaning. In a simple sentence like this, the main point is that egregia agrees with femina, wherever it appears.

Yes. Because Latin uses endings to show grammatical roles, the words can often be rearranged.

For example, these could still mean essentially the same thing:

• Femina egregia urbem regit
• Urbem femina egregia regit
• Regit femina egregia urbem

However, the different orders can change emphasis, focus, or style.

The version you were given is a very straightforward order:

• subject: femina egregia
• object: urbem
• verb: regit

Here is the breakdown:

• femina — 1st declension noun
• egregia — feminine form of a 1st/2nd declension adjective
• urbs, urbis — 3rd declension noun
• rego, regere — 3rd conjugation verb

This is useful because Latin forms depend heavily on declension and conjugation patterns.

In a common classroom/Classical pronunciation, regit is pronounced roughly:

• REH-git

Important points:

• the g is always a hard g, as in get
• the i here sounds like a short i

So not REE-jit.

A rough Classical-style pronunciation is:

• FEH-mi-na eh-GREH-gi-a OOR-bem REH-git

A few helpful notes:

• g is always hard
• v in Classical pronunciation is closer to w, though many learners use a later pronunciation with v
• every written vowel is pronounced

So egregia is pronounced as four syllables:

• e-gre-gi-a

not like an English compressed form.

Yes. Egregius, egregia, egregium is a positive adjective meaning something like:

• distinguished
• excellent
• outstanding
• remarkable

So femina egregia describes the woman in a favorable way.

Because the ending of the Latin verb already includes the subject information.

In regit, the -t ending tells you it is 3rd person singular:

• he/she/it rules

So Latin often does not need a separate subject pronoun such as ea (she). The noun femina makes the subject even clearer.

This is another major difference from English: Latin verbs often contain more information inside a single word.