A future infinitive in indirect statement marks an event as posterior to the governing act of speaking, thinking, knowing, or expecting. Thus dīcit Lūciam ventūram esse means “he says that Lucia will come,” while dīxit Lūciam ventūram esse means “he said that Lucia would come.” Latin has not changed infinitive tense; English changes “will” to “would” because the report itself is past.
The active future infinitive is common and agrees with its accusative subject. The passive future infinitive is a rarer (formal) construction with an invariant supine. Both require the reader to establish structure and relative time before translating.
Future Active: Participle Plus Esse
The future active infinitive consists of the future active participle in the accusative plus esse. The participle is built from the fourth principal part or supine stem and -ūrus, -ūra, -ūrum; it agrees with the infinitive’s subject.
| Accusative subject | Future infinitive phrase | Meaning after dīcit |
|---|---|---|
| Mārcum | ventūrum esse | that Marcus will come |
| Lūciam | ventūram esse | that Lucia will come |
| mīlitēs | ventūrōs esse | that the soldiers will come |
| agmina | ventūra esse | that the columns will come |
Lūcia dīcit sē post cēnam reditūram esse.
Lucia says that she will return after dinner.
Lūcia dīxit sē post cēnam reditūram esse.
Lucia said that she would return after dinner.
Reflexive sē refers back to Lucia, the subject of the reporting verb. Feminine reditūram supplies information that invariant sē cannot show. With a different reported subject, Latin uses its name or an appropriate pronoun: Lūcia dīxit Mārcum reditūrum esse.
Posteriority Is Relative, Not Absolute
Future meaning is anchored to the reporting event. The eventual action can be future from today, already completed from today’s perspective, or never realized at all.
Avus narrāvit sē posterō annō Rōmam itūrum esse.
Grandfather related that he would go to Rome the following year.
The journey is later than narrāvit. Nothing in itūrum esse tells us whether it later happened. Indirect statement reports a claim or belief; it does not certify its truth.
A negation normally belongs with the embedded prediction:
Medicus putat febrem ante lūcem nōn reditūram esse.
The doctor thinks that the fever will not return before dawn.
Here nōn negates reditūram esse. By contrast, medicus nōn putat febrem reditūram esse most naturally means “the doctor does not think that the fever will return.” Latin word order is flexible, but scope must be inferred from placement, idiom, and context.
Esse May Be Omitted
Classical (formal) and (literary) prose frequently omits esse after the future participle when the construction is clear. The agreeing participle still marks the reported subject and posteriority.
Dux respondit exercitum prīmā lūce profectūrum.
The commander replied that the army would depart at dawn.
Expanded profectūrum esse means the same thing. Omission is licensed compression, not a separate finite verb and not an invitation to omit every infinitive. In learner composition, retaining esse is clear and fully Classical.
When a future participle has a predicate noun or adjective with esse, agreement can produce several accusatives:
Omnēs crēdunt Iūliam bonam ducem futūram esse.
Everyone believes that Julia will be a good leader.
Iūliam is the accusative subject; bonam ducem is its accusative predicate; futūram agrees with the same feminine subject. English order alone cannot identify these relations, but case and agreement can.
Deponent and Irregular Futures
Deponent verbs have passive-looking finite forms but active meanings. Their future active participles and future infinitives are active in meaning: profectūrum esse “to be going to depart,” moriturum esse “to be going to die,” secutūrum esse “to be going to follow.”
Aegrōtus intellegit sē sine cūrā moritūrum esse.
The patient understands that he will die without treatment.
Some common verbs have irregular future participial stems: eō gives itūrus, ferō gives lātūrus, and sum normally uses fore or futūrum esse. These forms must be learned from principal parts; there is no safe way to invent every future participle from the present stem.
Crēdō hanc rem magnum auxilium lātūram esse.
I believe that this measure will bring substantial help.
Future Passive: Supine Plus Īrī
The future passive infinitive combines the accusative supine in -um with īrī: captum īrī, “to be going to be captured.” The supine is invariant and does not agree with the accusative subject.
| Subject | Correct phrase | Why |
|---|---|---|
| urbem | urbem captum īrī | captum is a supine, not feminine captam |
| oppida | oppida captum īrī | the same invariant supine appears with a plural subject |
Explōrātōrēs arbitrantur oppidum brevī captum īrī.
The scouts think that the town will be captured shortly.
Cīvēs verēbantur domōs suās incēnsum īrī.
The citizens feared that their houses would be burned.
This construction belongs mainly to (formal) Classical prose and is much less frequent than the future active infinitive. It is available only where a supine stem is established. Latin commonly replaces it with fore ut plus a subjunctive, especially when the speaker wants a fully finite clause or the verb lacks a convenient supine. That choice is covered on Fore and Futurum Esse Ut.
Prediction Versus Intention
The future participle can suggest intention or readiness as well as neutral prediction. Context and the lexical meaning of the subject determine the best translation.
Mīlitēs clāmant sē signō datō impetum factūrōs esse.
The soldiers shout that they intend to attack when the signal is given.
“Will make an attack” is possible, but a willing human subject and the speech situation favor intention. With an inanimate subject, neutral prediction is more likely: nautae putant tempestātem saevītūram esse, “the sailors think the storm will rage.” Latin does not morphologically distinguish English “will,” “is going to,” and “intends to” in this construction.
Nor is every future-oriented complement a future infinitive. Verbs of hoping, promising, and intending can license meanings that are naturally prospective even with a present complementary infinitive. Crās proficīscī cupit means “she wants to leave tomorrow,” not “she wants to be leaving now.” Determine first whether the infinitive expresses a reported proposition or merely completes the governing verb.
From Direct to Indirect Speech
The safest production method begins with the direct statement, not its English translation.
Direct: Crās veniēmus. Indirect: Dīxērunt sē posterō diē ventūrōs esse.
Direct: We will come tomorrow. Indirect: They said that they would come the next day.
The direct nominative nōs becomes reflexive accusative sē because the original speakers are also the subjects of the report. Finite future veniēmus becomes agreeing ventūrōs esse. The time adverb shifts from the speaker’s crās to the reporter’s posterō diē when the perspectives differ.
This transformation also shows why blindly copying English word order fails. Latin can write posterō diē sē ventūrōs dīxērunt to foreground the date. The endings, not adjacency, connect sē with ventūrōs.
Common Mistakes
Using a nominative subject inside accusative-and-infinitive
❌ Dīcit Lūcia crās ventūra esse.
Incorrect — after active dīcit, the reported subject must be accusative.
✅ Dīcit Lūciam crās ventūram esse.
He says that Lucia will come tomorrow.
Failing to make the future participle agree
❌ Putat fīliās mox ventūrum esse.
Incorrect — ventūrum does not agree with feminine plural fīliās.
✅ Putat fīliās mox ventūrās esse.
He thinks that his daughters will come soon.
Treating “would” as a special conditional infinitive
❌ Dīxit eum venīre, intended as ‘He said that he would come.’
Incorrect — ordinary posterior action requires the future infinitive.
✅ Dīxit eum ventūrum esse.
He said that he would come.
Making the future passive supine agree
❌ Crēdunt urbem captam īrī.
Incorrect — captum is an invariant supine in the future passive infinitive.
✅ Crēdunt urbem captum īrī.
They believe that the city will be captured.
Reading fronted words by English position
❌ Hunc librum putat Mārcum lectūrum esse = ‘This book thinks Marcus will read.’
Incorrect — hunc librum is the fronted object of lectūrum esse; putat has an understood subject.
✅ Hunc librum putat Mārcum lectūrum esse.
He thinks that Marcus will read this book.
Key Takeaways
- Future infinitives express posteriority relative to the governing verb, not absolute future time.
- The future active participle agrees with the accusative subject; esse may be omitted when the structure is clear.
- The future passive uses an invariant supine plus īrī and is chiefly (formal).
- Build the Latin from the direct proposition and its dependencies, then adjust pronouns and temporal viewpoint.
Future infinitives therefore encode a relation, not an absolute calendar tense. Agreement identifies the subject of the future active form, the invariant supine identifies the future passive form, and discourse determines whether a prediction also carries intention, confidence, or doubt.
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Start learning Latin →Related Topics
- Passive Indirect StatementB1 — How Latin reports that something is being done, has been done, or will be done with an accusative subject and a passive infinitive.
- Tense Relations in InfinitivesB1 — How present, perfect, and future infinitives locate an event relative to a governing verb rather than by absolute clock time.
- Fore and Futurum Esse UtB1 — How fore ut and futurum esse ut provide a finite-clause alternative for future propositions, especially future passive ones.
- Future Active InfinitiveA2 — How Latin combines a future active participle with esse to mark an active event later than its governing verb.
- Future Passive InfinitiveA2 — How the rare Latin construction in supine -um plus īrī marks an event to be undergone later.
- Accusative Subject of the InfinitiveA2 — Recognize the accusative noun or pronoun that serves as the subject inside a Latin infinitival clause.