Автоплатёж покрыл пени.

Автоплатёж means automatic payment or auto-payment.

It is made from:

• авто- = auto-, automatic
• платёж = payment

So it is a compound noun: literally auto-payment.

A useful spelling note:

• You will often see платёж written as платеж in everyday Russian text.
• The letter ё is often replaced in writing by е, but the pronunciation is still different.

Покрыл is:

• past tense
• masculine singular
• perfective

It agrees with the subject автоплатёж, which is a masculine singular noun.

So:

• автоплатёж покрыл = the automatic payment covered

If the subject were feminine, you would get покрыла. If it were plural, you would get покрыли.

The verb покрыть is the perfective partner of покрывать.

Here, perfective means the action is viewed as completed:

• Автоплатёж покрыл пени = the payment did cover / has covered the penalty charges.

Compare:

• покрывал = was covering / used to cover / covered in an ongoing sense
• покрыл = covered successfully, as a finished result

In financial language, perfective is very natural when talking about a completed payment result.

Here покрыть means something like:

• to cover
• to pay for
• to be enough to pay
• to offset

In money contexts, Russian often uses покрыть where English might say:

• cover the fees
• pay the fees
• be enough to cover the fees

So in this sentence, the idea is that the automatic payment was sufficient to pay the penalty amount.

Пени means penalties, late fees, or penalty charges.

In Russian financial/legal usage, пени is very commonly used in the plural, even where English might use a singular expression like a late fee or an uncountable phrase like late-payment charges.

So a learner should think of пени as a standard Russian term for accumulated penalty charges.

Here пени is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of покрыл.

The structure is:

• Автоплатёж = subject
• покрыл = verb
• пени = direct object

Since пени is inanimate and plural, its accusative form looks like the nominative:

• nominative: пени
• accusative: пени

So the form does not change here.

In practice, learners will most often meet пени as a plural noun in financial contexts.

There is also a singular form пеня, but in real-life banking, billing, and legal language, the plural пени is much more common.

So for learning purposes, it is very reasonable to treat пени as a word usually used in the plural meaning penalty charges / late fees.

Russian does not have articles like the or a/an.

So:

• Автоплатёж покрыл пени

can mean:

• The automatic payment covered the penalties
• An automatic payment covered the penalties

Which one sounds best in English depends on context, but Russian does not mark that difference with articles.

Yes. Автоплатёж покрыл пени is a very normal, neutral word order:

• subject + verb + object

Russian word order is flexible, but this version sounds straightforward and informative.

Other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

• Пени покрыл автоплатёж = it was the automatic payment that covered the penalties
• Покрыл пени автоплатёж = more marked, less neutral

So the original sentence is the most standard way to present the information.

Yes, something like that is possible, but покрыл has a slightly different nuance.

• оплатил = paid
• покрыл = covered

Покрыл suggests the payment amount was enough to take care of the penalties. It can sound a bit more like a financial result: the charge was covered.

So Автоплатёж покрыл пени is very natural in banking or billing language.

A helpful pronunciation guide is:

Автоплатёж покрыл пени
av-ta-pla-TYOZH pa-KRYL PE-ni

Stress:

• автоплатёж
• покрыл
• пени

Also remember:

• ё is pronounced like yo
• ы in покрыл is a distinct Russian vowel, not exactly like English i or ee