Indirect Statement
In English, there are two ways to report what someone says. We can report it directly by using quotations or we can report it indirectly by paraphrasing it. Consider the following examples:
- Direct Statement: The students said: “We like Latin.”
- Indirect Statement: The students said that they like Latin.
- Direct Statement: She said: “Pizza is the best food.”
- Indirect Statement: She said that pizza is the best food.
How do we differentiate between what someone actually said and a paraphrase of what they said in Latin? The answer is that we change the form that we use for the subject and main verb of the statement. When we replicate what was actually said, we follow the nominative subject and finite verb pattern that we have already met this semester:
- Dixit: “pater amavit filias.”
- He said: “The father loved his daughters.”
To indicate that we are paraphrasing what the speaker said, we use the accusative to represent the subject of the indirect statement and an infinitive as the verbal action of the indirect statement.
- Dixit patrem amāre filiās.
- He said that the father loved his daughters.
Thus, we can recognize indirect statement by the use of an accusative subject and an infinitive following the sentence’s main verb. (Be sure to review infinitive formation.)
While the main verb in these constructions is often a verb of speaking (e.g. dicō, dicere, dixī, dictus, “to say, speak”), indirect statements in Latin can also be introduced by what is known as a verb of the head, a verb for any action you can do with your head (e.g., speaking, thinking, learning, perceiving, believing, seeing, agreeing).
Here are some examples of indirect statements with different examples of verbs of the head (bolded):
- Credēbat patrem amāre filiās. (“He was believing that the father loved his daughters.”)
- Vīdit patrem amāre filiās. (“He saw that the father loved his daughters.”)
- Didicit patrem amāre filiās. (“He learned that the father loved his daughters.”)
- Cognovit patrem amāre filiās. (“He knew that the father loved his daughters.”)
In all of these sentences, notice that we have an accusative direct object in addition to the accusative subject and infinitive as the verb. Because we can’t necessarily use Latin word order to determine meaning, you may have to use context clues to determine which accusative is the subject and which accusative is the direct object.
For example, in the last sentence (cognovit patrem amāre fīliās), if the context calls for it, it would be just as correct to translate the sentence as “He knew that the daughters loved their father.”
Time in Indirect statement
Time in indirect statement is relative to the main verb. What that means is that the tense of the infinitive tells us when the action of the indirect statement happened in relation to the time of the main verb. For instance, the use of a present infinitive tells us that the action of the infinitive of the indirect statement happens at the same time as the action of the main verb (e.g., thinking/speaking/seeing). So, that means that if, for example, the main verb is in a past tense, then the action of the present infinitive should be translated in the past tense too, despite the fact that it’s a “present” infinitive. Note the following examples:
- Credit patrem amāre filiās. (“He believes that the father loves his daughter.”)
- Credidit patrem amāre filiās. (“He believed that the father loved his daughters.”)
- Credit filiās amāri ab patre. (“He believes that the daughters are loved by their father.”)
- Credidit filiās amāri ab patre. (“He believed that the daughters were loved by their father.”)
The perfect infinitive is used to indicate that the action of the infinitive happened before the action of the main verb:
- Credit patrem amāvisse filiās. (“He believes that the father loved his daughter.”)
- Credidit patrem amāvisse filiās. (“He believed that the father had loved his daughters.”)
- Note that the translation “had loved” is technically the pluperfect tense, which indicates an action that happened before an action in the past.
- Credit filiās amātās esse ab patre. (“He believes that the daughters were loved by their father.”)
- Credidit filiās amātās esse ab patre. (“He believed that the daughters had been loved by their father.”)
- Note again that “had been loved” is in the pluperfect tense to indicate an action that took place before a past tense action.
The future infinitive (no need to worry to much about this for now) is used to indicate that the action of the indirect statement infinitive happened after the action of the main verb:
- Credit patrem amāturum esse filiās. (“He believes that the father will love his daughters.”)