Puer paene veritatem dicit, sed timet.

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.

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.

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

So paene is answering to what extent? or how nearly?

Dicit is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from dico, dicere, meaning say, speak, or tell.

The -t ending tells you the subject is he/she/it. Here it matches puer, so it means the boy says / tells.

Because Latin usually does not need an explicit subject pronoun.

The ending -t in timet already means he/she/it. Since puer has already been given as the subject, Latin naturally continues with the same subject unless something indicates otherwise.

So sed timet means but he is afraid / but he fears, even though Latin does not say is or he separately.

Timet is also:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from timeo, timere, meaning fear or be afraid.

So it agrees with puer, just like dicit does.

Because timeo can be used either with an object or without one.

For example:

• mortem timet = he fears death
• timet = he is afraid

In this sentence, the idea is simply that the boy is afraid, so no object is necessary.

Sed is a coordinating conjunction meaning but.

It joins two clauses:

• Puer paene veritatem dicit
• sed timet

It signals a contrast: the boy almost tells the truth, but fear stops him or holds him back.

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical roles.

Here:

• puer = subject
• veritatem = object
• dicit / timet = verbs

So even if the order changes, the basic grammar is still clear.

The sentence as written puts paene veritatem before dicit, which gives a natural buildup toward the verb. Latin often places the verb later than English does.

Yes, literally it is something like says the truth, but idiomatically it is better understood as tells the truth or speaks the truth.

Latin often uses dicere in ways where English prefers tell rather than say.

So a learner should understand that veritatem dicere is a normal Latin expression.

In this sentence, the natural sense is he almost tells the truth.

That is, he comes close to telling it, but does not fully do so.

A native English speaker may wonder if almost is modifying truth instead, as in almost the truth, but Latin paene often works with the whole idea that follows, not just the next word in isolation. Here it is best taken with veritatem dicit as a whole.

Because the sentence presents both actions or states as happening in the present situation:

• dicit = he says / is saying / tells
• timet = he fears / is afraid

As in Latin generally, the present tense can be translated into English in more than one way depending on context. The exact English wording may vary, but the Latin form is still simply present tense.