Gemellus matri suae veritatem confitetur.

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.

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

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
• dative singular: matri

So matri means to the mother or to his mother once suae is added.

Because suae is the reflexive possessive adjective. It refers back to the subject of the sentence, which is Gemellus.

So matri suae means to his own mother = the mother of Gemellus.

By contrast, eius would usually mean his/her referring to someone else, not the subject.

So the difference is:

• matri suae = to his own mother
• matri eius = to his/her mother, someone else’s mother

Because suae agrees with matri, not with Gemellus.

Possessive adjectives in Latin agree with the noun they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here matri is:

• feminine
• singular
• dative

So the possessive adjective must also be feminine singular dative: suae.

Even though the owner is male (Gemellus), the adjective agrees with the thing owned, not the owner.

Veritatem is accusative singular.

It is the direct object of confitetur: it tells you what Gemellus confesses.

The dictionary form is veritas = truth. Its accusative singular is veritatem.

So:

• veritas = truth
• veritatem = truth as the direct object

Because confitetur comes from a deponent verb.

Deponent verbs use passive-looking forms but have active meanings.

So although confitetur ends in -tur, which often signals passive, here it means:

• he confesses
• not he is confessed

This is something Latin learners often have to get used to. The form looks passive, but the translation is active.

The dictionary form is confitēor, meaning confess, admit, or acknowledge.

Its principal parts are commonly given as:

• confitēor
• confitērī
• confessus sum

Because it is deponent, the third principal part is a perfect form built with the participle and sum.

In this sentence, confitetur is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense
• indicative mood
• deponent

So it means he confesses or is confessing.

No. Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the endings show each word’s job.

So the following could all mean basically the same thing:

• Gemellus matri suae veritatem confitetur
• Veritatem Gemellus matri suae confitetur
• Matri suae Gemellus veritatem confitetur

The original order is perfectly natural, but changing the order can shift emphasis.

For example:

• putting veritatem first may emphasize the truth
• putting matri suae first may emphasize to his mother

In this sentence, Gemellus is most naturally understood as a proper name.

As a regular Latin adjective/noun, gemellus can mean twin or twin-born, but when capitalized in a sentence like this, it is likely being used as a person’s name: Gemellus.

So grammatically it functions just like any other masculine singular nominative subject.

Yes. Depending on context, confitetur can be translated as:

• confesses
• admits
• acknowledges

And the whole sentence could be rendered in slightly different English ways, such as:

• Gemellus confesses the truth to his mother
• Gemellus admits the truth to his mother
• Gemellus acknowledges the truth to his mother

The exact English choice depends on style and context, but the Latin grammar remains the same.

By itself, suus, sua, suum does not directly tell you his, her, or their the way English does. It means his/her/their own, referring back to the subject.

So you identify the possessor by finding the subject:

• subject = Gemellus
• therefore suae refers back to Gemellus

That is why in this sentence it means his own.

If the subject were plural, suus could refer to their own instead.

A helpful breakdown is:

• Gemellus = subject
• matri suae = indirect object, the person addressed
• veritatem = direct object, the thing confessed
• confitetur = verb

So the pattern is essentially:

subject + person in the dative + thing in the accusative + verb

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