Exercise 22: Indirect Speech (ACCUSATIVE+INFINITIVE)
Indirect speech in English:
A. When the main verb of the sentence is in a ‘primary’ tense (i.e. present, future, perfect with ‘have’, future perfect):
He says, ‘Dogs are fierce.’ (Direct speech)
He says [that] dogs are fierce. (Indirect speech)
B. When the main verb of the sentence is in a ‘historic’ tense (i.e. imperfect, perfect without ‘have’, pluperfect):
He said, ‘The king eats fish.’ (Direct speech)
He said [that] the king ate fish. (Indirect speech)
He said, ‘The soldiers have gone home.’ (Direct)
He said [that] the soldiers had gone home. (Indirect)
He said, ‘The queen will come.’ (Direct)
He said that the queen would come. (Indirect)
In Latin the construction for indirect speech is called the ACCUSATIVE INFINITIVE:
The direct speech subject becomes ACCUSATIVE
The direct speech verb becomes INFINITIVE and keeps the original tense.
THERE ARE SIX INFINITIVES IN LATIN:
| Present, active | Present, passive |
| Past (perfect), active | Past (perfect), passive |
| Future, active | Future, passive |
This is how they look:
| PRESENT ACTIVE | PRESENT PASSIVE |
| (This is the second main part of any verb) | (Observe the similarity to the present active infinitive) |
| amare | amari |
| monere | moneri |
| regere | regi |
| audire | audiri |
| esse (sum) | (the verb sum has no passive) |
| PAST (PERFECT) ACTIVE | PAST PASSIVE |
| (Find the third main part of the verb, remove the final —i and add -isse) | (= Perfect Participle + esse; for the Perfect Participle see Exercise 20) |
| amav-isse | amatus -a -um* esse |
| monu-isse | monit-us -a -um* esse |
| rex-isse | rect-us -a -um* esse |
| audiv-isse | audit-us -a -um* esse |
| fu-isse |
| FUTURE ACTIVE | FUTURE PASSIVE |
| (Future Participle + esse; for the Future Participle see Exercise 20) | This form is very rare indeed. |
| amatur-us -a —-um* esse | |
| monitur-us -a —um* esse | |
| rectur-us -a —um* esse | |
| auditur-us -a —um* esse | |
| futurus -a —um* esse |
*Remember that the participle section of the Future Active and Past Passive infinitives need to agree with their subject. They have the same endings as bonus bona bonum. In this exercise you will often find these infinitives in the Accusative – e.g. amaturum esse, amaturam esse, amaturos esse, amaturas esse and amatum esse, amatam esse, amatos esse etc.
Converting Direct to Indirect speech in Latin
| Caesar dicit, ‘Cicero Cleopatram amat.’ | (amat: present tense) |
| > Caesar dicit Ciceronem Cleopatram amare. | (amare: present tense) |
| Caesar dicebat, ‘regina Brutum adiuvabit.’ | (adiuvabit: future tense) |
| > Caesar dicebat reginam Brutum adiuturam esse. | (adiuturam esse: future infinitive) |
| Caesar dixit, ‘servi auditi sunt.’ | (auditi sunt: perfect passive) |
| > Caesar dixit servas auditos esse. | (auditos esse: perfect passive) |
SUMMARY
i) The SUBJECT of the verb in the reported speech goes into the Accusative; personal pronouns may also have to change (just as they do in English: He said, ‘I will leave’ becomes:- He said [that] he would leave).
ii) The VERB in the Latin indirect speech is in the infinitive; its tense is that of the ORIGINAL WORDS.
In translating from Latin, see what tense the infinitive is, make up the original words using that tense then convert the English direct speech into story form.
NOTES
a) When the subject of the indirect speech is the same as the subject of the main verb (‘He/they said’ or whatever), Latin uses the reflexive pronoun ‘se’ (accusative) as the subject of the indirect speech.
dicit Cicero se ambulare = ‘Cicero says that he is walking.’
b) The object (if there is one) in the reported speech will stay in the accusative; therefore you must apply judgement and knowledge of the context to decide which accusative represents the subject.
dicit Ciceronem canem momordisse.
Does this mean ‘He says Cicero bit a dog’ or ‘He says a dog bit Cicero’?
Common sense says the dog did the biting – but IN THE RIGHT CONTEXT it could be the other way round.
METHOD
i) Identify the tense of the infinitive;
ii) using that tense in English, make up what the original words would have been;
iii) transform these “original words” (direct speech) into the form required by the story/narrative setting:
EXAMPLES
dicit se amare vinum.
i) amare = present infinitive
ii) original words would have been ‘I love wine’ (present tense)
iii) take direct speech back into the story-frame: He says (that) he loves wine.
dixit se amare vinum.
i) amare = present infinitive
ii) original words: ‘I love wine’
iii) back into story-frame: He said that he loved wine.
dixit se domum iturum esse.
i) future infinitive
ii) ‘I will go home’
iii) He said that he would go home.
NOTE 1: *With the ‘future infinitive’ the ‘esse’ is often omitted. NB the future ‘infinitive’ is made of the infinitive of sum (esse; to be) and the future participle. The participle must agree with the word it describes in number case and gender (it declines like bonus bona bonum, Kennedy #71), so you will often be able to tell for sure in these cases which accusative represents the subject.
NOTE 2: ‘se’ (accusative) is third person (he/she/it/they/himself &c) refers to the subject of the sentence and has the same form in the singular and plural.
