Questions & Answers about Puer paene veritatem dicit, sed timet.
Why is puer in this form?
Puer is nominative singular, because it is the subject of the sentence: the boy is the one doing the actions.
It comes from puer, pueri meaning boy.
Unlike many second-declension masculine nouns, puer keeps the -er in the nominative singular.
Why is veritatem not veritas?
Because veritatem is the direct object of dicit.
The verb dicere takes an object in the accusative case, and here the thing being said is the truth. So:
- veritas = nominative singular, truth
- veritatem = accusative singular, truth as object
This noun is from veritas, veritatis, a third-declension feminine noun.
What does paene do in the sentence?
Paene is an adverb meaning almost.
It modifies the idea of telling the truth. In other words, it does not describe puer or veritatem by themselves; it affects the verbal idea:
- paene veritatem dicit = he almost tells the truth