Puer ad matrem procedit et veritatem dicit.

Puer is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case. In Latin, the nominative is used for the person or thing doing the action.

Here, puer is the one who approaches and speaks, so nominative is correct.

If it were puerum, that would be accusative, which usually marks a direct object, not the subject.

The preposition ad means to or toward and shows movement in the direction of something.

So ad matrem means toward the mother or to the mother.

Latin often uses a preposition like ad when English uses to for physical movement. Without ad, matrem by itself would usually be understood as a direct object, which would not fit the meaning here.

Because ad takes the accusative case.

This is a very common Latin pattern:

• ad + accusative = to/toward
• in + accusative can also show motion into something
• in + ablative usually shows location in something

So mater becomes matrem after ad.

Procedit is:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It means he/she/it proceeds, comes forward, or approaches, depending on context.

Because the subject is puer (boy), here it means the boy approaches or the boy comes forward.

The ending -it shows third person singular present for many Latin verbs of the third conjugation.

The verb is procedere. Its present forms include:

• procedo = I proceed
• procedis = you proceed
• procedit = he/she/it proceeds

So the ending helps tell you who is doing the action.

Dicit is also:

• third person singular
• present tense
• active voice
• indicative mood

It comes from dicere, meaning to say or to speak.

So veritatem dicit means he says the truth or more naturally he tells the truth.

Veritatem is the direct object of dicit, so it is in the accusative case.

The boy is doing the action of speaking, and the truth is what he speaks or tells.

The dictionary form is veritas (truth), and its accusative singular form is veritatem.

Latin often expresses ideas with a noun + verb combination where English might use a more fixed phrase.

Literally, veritatem dicit is he says the truth, but idiomatically it means he tells the truth.

This is perfectly normal Latin. A learner should get used to translating by sense, not always word-for-word.

Yes. Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order because the endings show the grammatical roles.

So these could still mean the same basic thing:

• Ad matrem puer procedit et veritatem dicit.
• Puer veritatem dicit et ad matrem procedit.
• Veritatem puer ad matrem procedit et dicit.
  (less natural in some contexts, but still understandable)

However, word order in Latin often changes emphasis, style, or rhythm. The original sentence is straightforward and clear.

Yes. Et is the ordinary Latin word for and.

It connects:

• words
• phrases
• clauses

Here it joins two actions done by the same subject:

• ad matrem procedit
• veritatem dicit

So the boy both approaches his mother and tells the truth.

Latin often leaves possession or relationship unstated when it is obvious from context.

So ad matrem literally means to the mother, but in context English may naturally say to his mother.

Latin does have possessive adjectives like suam (his own/her own), and the sentence could say ad matrem suam if the writer wanted to make that explicit. But often Latin does not need to say it.

All three are possible, depending on context.

• proceeds is the most literal
• comes forward often works when someone steps up in a scene
• approaches is often the most natural here because of ad matrem

Since the sentence has ad matrem, approaches his mother is probably the smoothest English translation.

A common classroom pronunciation would be roughly:

POO-er ad MAH-trem pro-KAY-dit et way-ree-TAH-tem DEE-kit

If using a more classical pronunciation:

• puer = POO-er
• ad = ahd
• matrem = MAH-trem
• procedit = pro-KAY-dit
• et = et
• veritatem = weh-ree-TAH-tem
• dicit = DEE-kit

The exact pronunciation system may vary depending on whether your course uses Classical or Ecclesiastical Latin.

They are:

• puer — boy
• mater, matris — mother
• procedo, procedere, processi, processum — proceed, go forward, approach
• et — and
• veritas, veritatis — truth
• dico, dicere, dixi, dictum — say, speak, tell

Knowing dictionary forms helps you recognize why the words in the sentence have the endings they do.