Puer, rogatus a matre, veritatem tandem dicit.

The main sentence is:

• Puer ... dicit = The boy says
• veritatem = the truth (the direct object)
• tandem = at last / finally

So the core is:

Puer veritatem tandem dicit = The boy finally tells the truth.

The middle part, rogatus a matre, adds extra information about the boy:

• rogatus = having been asked / asked
• a matre = by his mother

So the whole sentence means something like:

The boy, having been asked by his mother, finally tells the truth.

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

Also, the verb dicit is third person singular, so it matches a singular subject:

• puer = singular
• dicit = he says / tells

That tells you puer is the one doing the action of dicit.

Rogatus is the perfect passive participle of rogare, meaning to ask.

So:

• rogare = to ask
• rogatus = asked / having been asked

In this sentence, it describes puer, so it means:

the boy, having been asked...

A native English speaker may be tempted to think of it as a full verb, but here it is functioning more like an adjective that carries verbal meaning.

Because participles agree with the noun they describe, just like adjectives do.

Here, rogatus describes puer, so it must match it in:

• gender: masculine
• number: singular
• case: nominative

That is why it is rogatus:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

If the subject were feminine, you would expect rogata instead.

When a verb or participle is passive, the person doing the action is often expressed with a or ab plus the ablative case. This is called the ablative of agent.

So:

• rogatus a matre = asked by his mother

Here:

• matre is the ablative singular of mater
• a means by before a consonant sound
• ab is used before a vowel or sometimes just as a variant

So a matre is completely normal Latin for by the mother.

Because after a/ab meaning by with a passive idea, Latin uses the ablative case.

The noun mater changes like this:

• nominative: mater
• ablative: matre

Since the mother is the agent of the passive participle rogatus, Latin puts it in the ablative:

• a matre = by the mother

Because it is the direct object of dicit.

The boy is doing the action of telling, and the truth is what he tells. In Latin, the direct object usually goes in the accusative case.

So:

• nominative: veritas = truth
• accusative: veritatem = truth, as the object

That is why Latin says veritatem dicit = he tells the truth.

Tandem means at last, finally, or after all this.

It adds a sense that the boy did not speak immediately, but did so after some delay, hesitation, or pressure.

So:

• veritatem tandem dicit = he finally tells the truth

It is an adverb, so it modifies the verb dicit.

Dicit is literally he says or he tells, present tense.

Latin often uses the present in a straightforward way, and English may translate it in different ways depending on context:

• he tells the truth
• he is telling the truth
• sometimes in narrative, even he told the truth

But grammatically, dicit itself is present active indicative, third person singular.

So the literal form is definitely present: he says / tells.

They show that rogatus a matre is a parenthetical or inserted descriptive phrase.

It is not the main action of the sentence. The main action is still:

Puer veritatem tandem dicit

The participial phrase simply gives the circumstance:

the boy, having been asked by his mother, finally tells the truth

In printed Latin, punctuation is less fundamental than in English, but these commas help the reader see the structure clearly.

Yes. Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the case endings show the grammatical relationships.

For example, these would still be understandable Latin with basically the same meaning:

• Puer veritatem tandem dicit, rogatus a matre
• Veritatem tandem puer dicit, rogatus a matre
• Rogatus a matre, puer veritatem tandem dicit

However, the chosen order is natural and clear. It presents:

1. the subject (puer)
2. the extra description (rogatus a matre)
3. the object and verb (veritatem tandem dicit)

So the word order helps with style and emphasis, even though the endings carry the grammar.

Yes. That is a very natural English translation.

A Latin perfect passive participle often suggests an action completed before the action of the main verb. So:

• rogatus = having been asked
• in smoother English: after being asked

That means the sequence is:

1. the mother asks him
2. then the boy finally tells the truth

So both of these are reasonable:

• The boy, having been asked by his mother, finally tells the truth.
• After being asked by his mother, the boy finally tells the truth.

It is both, in a way.

It is a participle, which means it has features of both:

• like an adjective, it agrees with puer
• like a verb, it keeps verbal meaning: someone asked him

So in this sentence, rogatus behaves grammatically like an adjective but still carries the idea of the verb rogare.

That is why learners often find participles tricky: they sit between verbs and adjectives.