Frater crimen suum fatetur, et soror ei ignoscit.

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

Here, frater means the brother or simply brother, depending on context. Since it is nominative, it is the one doing the action of fatetur.

So:

• frater = the brother
• fatetur = confesses

Together: The brother confesses...

Crimen is the direct object of fatetur, so it appears in the accusative singular.

A useful thing to notice is that crimen is a neuter third-declension noun, and for many neuter nouns, the nominative and accusative singular look the same. So even though crimen looks unchanged, here it is functioning as an accusative object.

In this sentence:

• crimen = crime, accusation, or wrongdoing
• it is the thing being confessed

So crimen suum fatetur means he confesses his crime.

Latin uses suus, sua, suum when the possession refers back to the subject of the same clause. This is called the reflexive possessive.

Here, the subject of the clause is frater, and the crime belongs to that same brother, so Latin says:

• crimen suum = his own crime

If Latin used eius, that would normally mean his in a non-reflexive sense, referring to someone else’s crime, not the subject’s own.

So:

• suum = his own
• eius = his / her / its, referring to another person

Because suum has to agree with crimen, not with frater.

Latin adjectives and possessives agree with the noun they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• crimen is neuter
• singular
• accusative

So the possessive must also be neuter singular accusative:

• suum

Even though the owner is the brother, the form of the possessive matches the thing owned, not the owner.

Because fateor, fateri, fassus sum is a deponent verb.

A deponent verb has:

• passive forms
• but an active meaning

So fatetur looks like a passive form, but it means:

• he confesses
• not he is confessed

This is very common in Latin, and learners often just need to memorize which verbs are deponent.

Fatetur is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• indicative mood
• from the deponent verb fateor

So it means:

• he confesses
• she confesses
• it confesses

In this sentence, since the subject is frater, it means the brother confesses.

Because ignosco takes the person forgiven in the dative case, not the accusative.

That is a very important point. In English, we say forgive him, where him looks like a direct object. But in Latin, the person is treated more like an indirect object:

• ei ignoscit = she forgives him
• literally something like she grants forgiveness to him

So ei is dative singular:

• to him
• to her
• to it

Here it refers to frater, so it means to him.

Latin often uses a pronoun when the reference is already clear.

After frater has been mentioned, the sentence can naturally continue with ei:

• et soror ei ignoscit = and the sister forgives him

Latin could sometimes repeat the noun, but the pronoun is smoother and more natural here, just as English usually says him rather than repeating the brother.

Soror is nominative singular, so she is the subject of ignoscit.

Just like frater in the first clause, soror is the person doing the action in the second clause.

So:

• soror = the sister
• ignoscit = forgives

Together: the sister forgives him

Ignoscit is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• indicative mood
• active voice
• from ignosco, ignoscere

It means:

• he forgives
• she forgives
• it forgives

Because the subject is soror, here it means the sister forgives.

Yes. Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because the cases show how the words function.

This sentence is fairly straightforward:

• Frater = subject
• crimen suum = object + possessive
• fatetur = verb
• et = and
• soror = subject
• ei = dative object
• ignoscit = verb

A very common Latin pattern is to place the verb near the end of the clause, and that is exactly what happens here with both fatetur and ignoscit.

So the word order feels natural in Latin, even though English would rely much more heavily on position.

By form alone, yes. Ei can mean:

• to him
• to her
• to it

It is the dative singular of is, ea, id.

But in this sentence, context makes it clear that ei refers back to frater, so it means to him.

Not always. Crimen can mean several related things, depending on context, such as:

• crime
• charge
• accusation
• offense
• wrongdoing

In this sentence, crime or wrongdoing is the most natural meaning. Latin words often have a range of meanings, so context matters.

Because the verb endings already show the person and number.

Both fatetur and ignoscit are third person singular, so Latin does not need to add a separate pronoun like he or she unless it wants extra emphasis or contrast.

So Latin can simply say:

• Frater ... fatetur
• soror ... ignoscit

and the subjects are perfectly clear from the nouns and verb forms.