Latin · Chapter 8 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Infinitives and indirect statement
Dixit se venturum esse: he said that he would come, with no word for that anywhere. The accusative-and-infinitive is the single most Latin piece of Latin grammar.
The short version
Latin has no word for that in reported speech
Where English says he says that the king is coming, Latin puts the subject of the reported clause into the accusative and its verb into the infinitive: dicit regem venire. There is no conjunction at all, and nothing marks the join except those two shapes. The construction covers everything after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing and perceiving, which is a large share of any historical text, so it is not an ornament you can read past.
Dicit regem venire.
The infinitive's tense is relative, not absolute
Present means at the same time as the main verb, perfect means before it, future means after it. So dixit regem venturum esse is he said that the king would come, a future infinitive sitting after a past main verb. Watch the subject too: se points back at the main subject, so dicit se venire is he says that he himself is coming, while dicit eum venire is he says that somebody else is.
Dixit regem venturum esse.
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