Laurus ante fanum stat, et puella folia eius spectat.

Because laurus is in the nominative singular, the case normally used for the subject of a finite verb. It matches stat, which is also singular: laurus ... stat = the laurel tree stands / is standing.

A learner may also notice that laurus ends in -us but is feminine. That is normal in Latin: grammatical gender does not always match the ending you might expect.

Latin does not have articles like English the and a/an. So laurus can mean a laurel tree or the laurel tree, depending on context. The same is true for fanum and puella.

English has to choose an article, but Latin usually leaves that to the reader or to the context.

Because ante as a preposition means before or in front of, and it takes the accusative case. So ante fanum means in front of the shrine/temple.

A useful detail: fanum is a neuter second-declension noun, and in neuter nouns the nominative and accusative singular are identical. So the form fanum could be either nominative or accusative in isolation, but after ante it must be accusative.

Stat comes from stare, meaning to stand. Latin often uses stare for something that is upright and located somewhere, especially a person, tree, statue, or building.

So laurus ante fanum stat is more vivid than simply saying is somewhere. It suggests the tree is standing there physically, not just existing.

Here folia is accusative plural, the direct object of spectat. It means leaves.

The base noun is folium = leaf. Since it is a neuter plural form:

• singular: folium
• plural: folia

So puella folia eius spectat means that the girl is looking at the leaves.

Because spectare is commonly used as a transitive verb in Latin: it can take a direct object in the accusative. So Latin says folia spectat, literally she watches/looks at the leaves.

English usually says look at, with a preposition. Latin does not need that preposition here.

Eius means his, her, or its, depending on the context. Grammatically, it is genitive singular, meaning of him / of her / of it.

Here it shows possession: folia eius = its leaves.

This form is the same for masculine, feminine, and neuter singular, so the context tells you whether it should be understood as his, her, or its.

Strictly speaking, eius could refer to any suitable singular third-person noun from the context. But here laurus is the natural antecedent, because leaves belong to the laurel tree.

So folia eius is best understood as its leaves, referring back to laurus.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because case endings show the grammatical function of words.

Both folia eius and eius folia can mean its leaves. The choice is often a matter of style, emphasis, or rhythm rather than basic grammar. In this sentence, folia eius spectat is completely natural Latin.

Each finite verb agrees with its subject in person and number:

• stat = third person singular present active indicative
  Subject: laurus
• spectat = third person singular present active indicative
  Subject: puella

Even though folia is plural, it does not affect spectat, because folia is the object, not the subject.

Yes. Laurus is a feminine noun. In Latin, grammatical gender is a property of the noun itself; it does not mean the tree is biologically female.

In fact, many Latin tree names are feminine. So a learner should simply memorize laurus as a feminine noun.

Yes, often it could. For example, Latin could rearrange the words without changing the core meaning, because the endings still show what each word is doing.

For instance, something like Puella eius folia spectat, et laurus ante fanum stat would still be understandable. However, changing the order can change emphasis, flow, or style.

The original sentence is a very normal, straightforward order:

• subject + phrase + verb
• et
• subject + object + possessive + verb