Gemellus matri suae veritatem confitetur.

the mother

Breakdown of Gemellus matri suae veritatem confitetur.

• suus: his
• veritas: the truth
• confiteri: to confess

Questions & Answers about Gemellus matri suae veritatem confitetur.

Why is Gemellus in the nominative case?

Because Gemellus is the subject of the sentence: he is the one doing the action of confitetur.

In Latin, the subject is normally put in the nominative case. So Gemellus is nominative singular.

If this is a proper name, you can think of it as Gemellus = Gemellus in English, but in Latin its form also shows its grammatical job.

What case is matri suae, and what does it mean grammatically?

Matri suae is in the dative singular.

It tells you the person to whom the confession is made. With confitetur, Latin commonly uses:

• the accusative for the thing confessed
• the dative for the person confessed to

So:

• veritatem = the truth, the thing being confessed
• matri suae = to his mother, the person receiving the confession

Why is it matri and not mater?

The dictionary form is mater = mother.

But here the word is not being used as the subject. It is being used in the dative singular, because it means to/for the mother.

The forms are:

• nominative singular: mater
• genitive singular: matris