Postero die puella ad scholam redibit.

Postero die means on the following day or more naturally the next day.

It is made of:

• postero = following, next
• die = day

Latin often uses an adjective + noun combination where English might use a single expression like the next day.

Grammatically, both words are in the ablative singular, because this is a common Latin way to express time when something happens. So postero die literally means something like on the next day.

It is ablative because Latin regularly uses the ablative of time when to tell when something happens.

So:

• postero die = on the next day
• compare similar expressions like prima luce = at first light

English usually uses a preposition such as on, at, or nothing at all, but Latin often does not need a preposition here.

Postero is the ablative singular form of the adjective posterus, -a, -um, meaning following or next.

It goes with die, and it agrees with it in:

• case: ablative
• number: singular
• gender: masculine

Since dies is usually masculine in this kind of expression, the adjective appears as postero.

Latin has no definite article and no indefinite article. In other words, it has no direct equivalent of English the, a, or an.

So:

• puella can mean the girl or a girl
• scholam can mean the school or a school

You decide from context which English article makes the best sense.

Puella is nominative because it is the subject of the sentence — the person doing the action.

The sentence says that the girl will return, so puella is the one performing the verb redibit.

A native English speaker can think:

• who will return?
• the girl
• therefore puella is the subject, so it is nominative

Ad scholam means to the school. The preposition ad commonly means to or toward, and it takes the accusative case.

So:

• ad = to
• scholam = accusative singular of schola

Together they show motion toward a place.

If you said just schola, that would not express to the school in normal Latin.

Because ad takes the accusative.

This is one of the most important Latin habits to learn: many prepositions regularly require a specific case. In this sentence:

• ad
  • accusative
• therefore schola becomes scholam

So ad scholam = to school / to the school.

Redibit is future tense, third person singular: he/she/it will return.

Here it means:

• puella redibit = the girl will return

You can recognize it as future from the ending pattern of 3rd-conjugation / -io and related verbs:

• redit = she returns
• redibit = she will return

The -bi- part helps mark the future here.

Redibit comes from the verb redeo, redire, redii/redivi, reditum, meaning to go back, to return.

It is built from:

• re- = back
• eo, ire = to go

So the basic idea is go back.

That is why redibit means she will go back or more naturally she will return.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because case endings show what each word is doing.

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

• Postero die puella ad scholam redibit

is a perfectly normal Latin arrangement.

English depends much more on word order, but Latin can move words around for emphasis, rhythm, or style.

Yes, often they could.

For example, these would still basically mean the same thing:

• Puella postero die ad scholam redibit
• Ad scholam postero die puella redibit
• Postero die ad scholam puella redibit

The endings tell you the grammatical roles, so Latin can be flexible. However, the exact order can slightly change emphasis:

• placing postero die first highlights when
• placing ad scholam earlier can emphasize where to
• placing puella earlier can emphasize who

So the meaning stays similar, but the focus may shift.

Either can be right, depending on context.

Because the verb comes from re- + go, the literal sense is will go back. But in natural English, will return is usually the smoother translation.

So:

• literal: will go back
• idiomatic: will return

In a sentence like this, The girl will return to school the next day is usually the best English.

A classroom-style reconstructed pronunciation would be approximately:

POST-eh-roh DEE-eh POO-el-lah ad SKHO-lam REH-dee-bit

A few helpful points:

• puella is pronounced roughly poo-EL-la
• sch in scholam is pronounced like skh, not like English sh
• c in Classical Latin is always hard, but there is no c here
• v does not appear here, but in Classical pronunciation it sounded like w

If you are using Ecclesiastical pronunciation, some sounds may differ slightly, especially in other words, but this sentence remains fairly straightforward.

Because the two phrases express different kinds of ideas.

• postero die expresses time when something happens, and Latin often uses the ablative without a preposition for that.
• ad scholam expresses motion toward a place, and Latin normally uses ad + accusative for that.

So the sentence combines two very common Latin patterns:

• when? → ablative of time when
• to where? → ad
  • accusative

That is why one phrase has no preposition, while the other does.