Discipulus dubius magistram rogat utrum responsum suum verum sit necne.

Because magistram is the direct object of rogat.

Latin often says aliquem rogare = to ask someone. So:

• discipulus = the student
• magistram = the teacher, as the person being asked
• rogat = asks

A native English speaker may expect something like asks to the teacher, but Latin does not use a preposition here. The person asked is simply put in the accusative.

Dubius is an adjective describing discipulus.

Both words are:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So they agree with each other:

• discipulus = student
• dubius = doubtful, uncertain, hesitant

It means the student is unsure. In English we might translate it as the uncertain student or the student, being uncertain depending on context.

Because Latin word order is much freer than English word order.

English strongly prefers uncertain student. Latin can say:

• dubius discipulus
• discipulus dubius

Both are possible. The difference is usually one of emphasis or style, not basic grammar.

So discipulus dubius is perfectly normal Latin.

It means whether ... or not.

This is a very common Latin way to introduce an indirect yes/no question:

• utrum = whether
• necne = or not

So:

• utrum responsum suum verum sit necne
  = whether his answer is true or not

You can think of utrum as opening the question and necne as giving the negative alternative.

Because Latin uses the subjunctive in indirect questions.

The clause introduced by utrum is not a direct question like:

• Estne responsum verum? = Is the answer true?

Instead, it is reported as part of a larger sentence:

• rogat utrum ... sit = he asks whether ... is

So sit is present subjunctive, required by the grammar of the indirect question.

Important: in English, you usually still translate it with a normal indicative:

• whether his answer is true not
• whether his answer may be true

Here the subjunctive is mainly grammatical, not something you need to force into the English meaning.

Because responsum is a neuter second-declension noun, and neuter nouns have the same form in the nominative and accusative singular.

So:

• nominative singular: responsum
• accusative singular: responsum

In this sentence, responsum is the subject of sit, so it is nominative. It just happens to look the same as the accusative.

This is very common with neuter nouns in Latin.

Because it agrees with responsum.

Here verum is a predicate adjective:

• responsum = answer
• verum = true

Since responsum is neuter singular, verum must also be neuter singular.

So responsum suum verum sit means his answer is true.

Because suus, sua, suum usually refers back to the subject, while eius usually refers to someone else.

Here the student is asking about his own answer, so Latin uses suum:

• responsum suum = his own answer

If Latin used eius, it would normally mean someone else’s answer.

For learners, a useful basic rule is:

• suus = one’s own
• eius = his/her/its, someone else’s

Yes, very often that is the best way to feel the difference.

Latin suus is reflexive and often has the sense of one’s own. So:

• responsum suum = his own answer

In natural English, though, we often just say his answer, because English does not always need own unless we want extra emphasis.

It has two parts:

1. The main clause:

   • Discipulus dubius magistram rogat
   • The uncertain student asks the teacher

2. The indirect question:

   • utrum responsum suum verum sit necne
   • whether his answer is true or not

So the full structure is:

• [main clause] + [indirect question]

That is a very common Latin pattern after verbs like rogat.

There is one useful thing to notice: rogo often takes the person asked as a direct object.

So Latin says:

• magistram rogat = he asks the teacher

This can feel unusual to English speakers, because English sometimes uses different patterns:

• ask the teacher
• ask the teacher a question
• ask whether...

Latin can do something similar. Here:

• the person asked = magistram
• the thing being asked = the indirect question introduced by utrum

Not in the same neat pattern.

With utrum, Latin commonly uses:

• utrum ... an ... = whether ... or ...
• utrum ... necne = whether ... or not

So necne is the standard compact way to say or not here.

A plain non would not serve the same function as naturally in this construction.

Not by itself.

The student’s uncertainty is already expressed by the vocabulary and situation, especially dubius and the fact that he is asking whether ... or not.

The subjunctive in sit is there because this is an indirect question. So you should not over-translate it. In English, the normal translation is still simply:

• whether his answer is true or not

not something heavier like:

• whether his answer might be true or not

unless the wider context really calls for that.