Puella cilium claudit.

Puella is in the nominative singular, which is the case normally used for the subject of a sentence.

Here, puella means girl, and its ending -a is the regular nominative singular ending for many first-declension nouns.

So in Puella cilium claudit, puella is the one doing the action.

Cilium is in the accusative singular, which is the case typically used for the direct object.

The verb claudit means closes, so something is being closed. That thing is cilium, so it appears in the accusative.

A useful detail:

• cilium is a neuter noun
• in many neuter nouns, the nominative and accusative singular look the same

So cilium could look like either nominative or accusative by form alone, but in this sentence it functions as the direct object.

The ending -t shows that the verb is third person singular in the present tense.

So claudit means:

• he closes
• she closes
• it closes

In this sentence, it matches puella, so the sense is the girl closes.

This is a very common Latin pattern:

• -o = I
• -s = you
• -t = he/she/it

Claudit comes from the verb claudere, meaning to close.

Its main parts are usually given as:

• claudo
• claudere
• clausi
• clausum

This is a third-conjugation verb.

So:

• claudere = to close
• claudit = he/she/it closes

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

So puella can mean:

• girl
• a girl
• the girl

And cilium can mean:

• an eyelid / eyelash
• the eyelid / eyelash

You figure out the most natural English translation from the context.

Latin often leaves possession unstated when it is obvious from the context.

In English, we often say the girl closes her eye/eyelid, but Latin can simply say Puella cilium claudit without adding a possessive word.

If Latin wanted to be more explicit, it could use a possessive adjective such as suum, but very often that is unnecessary when the owner is clear.

Yes. Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings give grammatical information.

So these could all express the same basic idea:

• Puella cilium claudit
• Cilium puella claudit
• Claudit puella cilium

However, word order can affect emphasis. For example:

• putting claudit first may emphasize the action
• putting cilium first may emphasize what is being closed

The version you were given is a straightforward, beginner-friendly order: subject + object + verb.

There are two main reasons:

1. Puella is clearly nominative, which strongly marks it as the subject.
2. Claudere is a transitive verb here, so it naturally takes an object—something that is being closed.

It is true that cilium could be nominative in form, because neuter nominative and accusative singular are identical. But in this sentence, the structure and sense make puella the subject and cilium the object.

Puella is:

• feminine
• singular
• first declension
• nominative here

Its basic form is puella, puellae, meaning girl.

This is one of the most common first-declension nouns Latin students learn, and its nominative singular ending -a is very typical of that declension.

Cilium is:

• neuter
• singular
• second declension
• accusative here

Its dictionary form is cilium, cilii.

Because it is a neuter second-declension noun, the nominative and accusative singular are both cilium. That is a standard neuter pattern in Latin.

In a common Classical pronunciation, you could say it roughly like this:

• puella = poo-EL-la
• cilium = KI-lee-um
• claudit = KLOW-dit

A few helpful pronunciation notes:

• ae usually sounds like ai in aisle
• c is always hard, like k
• au sounds like ow in cow

So the whole sentence is roughly: poo-EL-la KI-lee-um KLOW-dit

Yes. Latin verbs already contain the subject information in their endings.

The ending -t in claudit already means he/she/it. Because the sentence also includes puella, the subject is extra clear.

So Latin does not need to add a separate pronoun like she unless it wants special emphasis.