Puerum culpae suae piget, et matri veritatem fatetur.

Because piget is an impersonal verb.

With piget, Latin usually works like this:

• the person who feels regret goes in the accusative
• the thing regretted goes in the genitive

So:

• puerum = the boy as the person affected
• culpae suae = of his own fault

A very literal rendering would be something like it causes regret to the boy of his fault, even though natural English says the boy regrets his fault.

Because piget regularly takes the genitive of the thing regretted.

So culpae suae means of his own fault. This is not the way English expresses the idea, but it is normal Latin syntax with verbs like piget.

This pattern is worth remembering:

• puerum culpae suae piget = the boy regrets his fault
• literally, the boy is pained/regretful of his fault

Because suae agrees with culpae, not with puerum.

Latin adjectives agree with the noun they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• culpae is feminine singular genitive
• so the possessive adjective must also be feminine singular genitive
• therefore: suae

Even though the fault belongs to the boy, the adjective still agrees grammatically with culpa, the thing possessed.

It refers to the boy’s own fault.

suus, -a, -um is a reflexive possessive adjective, so it normally refers back to the subject of its clause. In this sentence, the first clause uses an impersonal verb, so the person logically involved is puerum. That is why suae means his own, referring to the boy.

So culpae suae means his own fault, not someone else’s fault.

piget is an impersonal verb meaning something like it causes regret, it makes someone sorry, or one regrets.

Important points:

• it is usually used only in the 3rd person singular
• it does not have a normal personal subject like many other verbs do
• the person affected appears in the accusative
• the cause or object of regret appears in the genitive

So learners often have to stop thinking in English terms and instead learn the Latin pattern as a set expression.

Because Latin often leaves the subject pronoun unstated when it is clear from the verb ending.

fatetur is 3rd person singular, so it already means he/she confesses.

In this sentence, we naturally understand that the same boy from the first clause is the one doing the confessing:

• Puerum ... piget = the boy regrets ...
• et ... fatetur = and he confesses ...

So Latin does not need to add is or another pronoun here.

Because fateor commonly takes the person confessed to in the dative.

So:

• matri = to his mother
• veritatem = the truth

This is a very common Latin pattern:

• alicui aliquid fateri = to confess something to someone

So matri veritatem fatetur means he confesses the truth to his mother.

fatetur comes from fateor, which is a deponent verb.

A deponent verb:

• has passive-looking forms
• but an active meaning

So although fatetur looks passive in form, it means he confesses, not he is confessed.

That is one of the most important things to notice here. A learner seeing fatetur for the first time might expect a passive meaning, but fateor is deponent.

Because it is the direct object of fatetur.

He is confessing what?
Answer: veritatem = the truth

So the structure is:

• matri = indirect object, to his mother
• veritatem = direct object, the truth
• fatetur = confesses

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order, because the endings show the grammar.

This sentence is perfectly normal, but a few things are worth noticing:

• Puerum comes first, which gives early attention to the person affected.
• culpae suae piget keeps the whole regret idea together.
• matri veritatem fatetur puts the recipient before the thing confessed, which is a natural Latin order.

You could rearrange the words in other ways and still keep the same basic meaning, as long as the forms stay the same. The endings, not the position alone, tell you how the words function.