1. admit: to say that you have done something wrong or illegal, especially when someone asks or persuades you to do this 承认做错事

例：

Admit it! You lied to me! （快招！你刚刚没说实话！）

admit (that)

Rachel admitted that she had made a mistake. （瑞秋承认她确实犯了错。）

Black finally admitted he had stolen the money. （布莱克最终承认自己偷了钱。）

admit (to) doing something

He admitted accepting bribes. （他承认受贿了。）

He admits to stealing the car. （他承认车是他偷的。）

admit responsibility/liability/negligence (=admit publicly that something is legally your fault)

The hospital refused to admit liability for the deaths of the two young children. （医院拒绝承认是院方失误导致这两名儿童死亡。）

2. confess: to tell the police or someone in a position of authority that you have done something very bad, especially after they have persuaded you to do this 向警方或当局认罪

例：

confess (that)

She confessed that she had killed her husband. （她招供了，承认自己谋杀亲夫。）

confess to a crime/robbery/murder etc

He confessed to the crime shortly after his arrest. （他被捕后不久就认罪了。）

confess to doing something

Edwards eventually confessed to being a spy. （爱德华最后招供了，承认自己是间谍。）

3. own up: to admit that you have done something wrong, especially something that is not serious

备注："own up" is more informal than "admit"or "confess"（"own up"比"admit"和"confess"都更口语化）

例：

Come on, own up. Who broke it? （快说！谁打破的？）

Unless the guilty person owns up, the whole class will be punished. （除非有人主动承认，要不全班都要受罚。）

own up to (doing) something

He was too frightened to own up to his mistake. （他吓坏了，不敢认错。）

No one owned up to breaking the window. （窗户被打破了，没人承认。）

I made a few mistakes, but I owned up to them. （我犯了错，但我向他们认错了。）

4. come clean: to finally tell the truth or admit that you have done something wrong

备注："come clean"常用于非正式的场合中。

例：

①The bank eventually came clean and admitted they had made a mistake. （银行最后终于承认是他们弄错了。）

②《老爸老妈浪漫史》S01E15中的一段对话：

Marshall: Victoria, "Have you ever cheated while in a relationship?" （维多利亚，你有没有背叛过你的男朋友？）

Victoria: Um, well, I was in a really crappy relationship in college, and I wound up kissing this guy at a party one night, and I felt terrible about it, so, I came clean, and we broke up. （嗯，好吧，大学时，我有一次糟糕的恋爱经历，在一次派对上，我亲了另一个男人，我感觉这样很不好，就跟男朋友坦白然后分手了。）

5. fess up: to admit that you have done something wrong, but not something that is very serious 为不严重的过失认错

备注："fess up"常用于美式英语的非正式场合中。

例：

Come on, fess up! Who ate the last cookie? （快说，是说吃了最后一块饼干？）

Come on, fess up - you must have been the one who told her because no-one else knew! （得了吧，你就认了吧，肯定是你告诉她的，因为除了你没人知道了。）

If none of you guys fesses up, you're all grounded for a week. （如果还没人承认，你们所有人接下来一周内都不要出门玩了！）