Iuvenis matri veritatem aperte fatetur.

Iuvenis is nominative singular, so it is the subject of the sentence.

A learner may hesitate because iuvenis does not have the very familiar second-declension ending -us, but it is a third-declension noun. Its dictionary form is:

• iuvenis, iuvenis = young man / youth

In this sentence, iuvenis is the one doing the action of fatetur, so it is the subject.

Matri is dative singular of mater, matris = mother.

With fateor (to confess, admit), the person to whom something is confessed is commonly put in the dative. So:

• matri = to his/her mother

English usually uses to for this idea, but Latin often expresses it with the dative case alone.

Veritatem is accusative singular of veritas, veritatis = truth.

It is the direct object of fatetur: it is the thing being confessed.

So the structure is:

• iuvenis = subject
• matri = indirect object / recipient
• veritatem = direct object

This is a very common Latin pattern:
someone + to someone + something + verb

Because fatetur comes from a deponent verb.

A deponent verb has:

• passive-looking forms
• but an active meaning

The verb here is fateor, fateri, fassus sum = to confess, admit.

So although fatetur ends like a passive form, it means:

• he/she confesses
• not he/she is confessed

This is one of the most important things for Latin learners to get used to.

Fatetur is:

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

So it means:

• he confesses
• she confesses
• the young man confesses, depending on context

Since the subject is iuvenis, here it means the young man confesses.

Aperte is an adverb.

It comes from apertus and means something like:

• openly
• plainly
• frankly

It modifies the verb fatetur, telling us how the young man confesses the truth.

So:

• fatetur = he confesses
• aperte fatetur = he confesses openly / frankly

Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because Latin uses case endings to show grammatical function.

English depends heavily on position:

• The young man confesses the truth to his mother

Latin can move words around more freely because the endings already show who is doing what:

• iuvenis = subject
• matri = recipient
• veritatem = direct object

So Iuvenis matri veritatem aperte fatetur is perfectly normal Latin. The verb often comes at or near the end, but Latin authors may change order for emphasis, rhythm, or style.

Yes, in many cases they could.

For example, these would still express basically the same core meaning:

• Iuvenis veritatem matri aperte fatetur
• Matri iuvenis veritatem aperte fatetur
• Veritatem iuvenis matri fatetur

The case endings keep the roles clear.

However, changing the order can change the emphasis. For example:

• putting veritatem earlier may emphasize the truth
• putting matri earlier may emphasize to his mother
• placing aperte near the verb keeps attention on the manner of confessing

So the meaning stays broadly the same, but the focus can shift.

Iuvenis is a third-declension noun.

Its basic forms are:

• nominative singular: iuvenis
• genitive singular: iuvenis

That is why the nominative singular does not end in -us like many masculine nouns in the second declension.

This is worth noticing because English-speaking learners often expect a masculine subject noun to look like servus or dominus, but Latin has many masculine nouns in other declensions too.

Yes, that is a common pattern with this verb.

With fateor, Latin often uses:

• the thing confessed in the accusative
• the person to whom it is confessed in the dative

So here:

• veritatem = the thing confessed
• matri = the person receiving the confession

That makes this sentence a very useful model for learning how fateor works.

Latin often leaves out possessive words like his, her, or their when the meaning is clear from context.

So matri can naturally mean:

• to the mother
• to his mother
• to her mother

In many sentences, Latin does not need to spell out the possessive if it is obvious or unimportant. English often prefers to include it, but Latin frequently does not.