Maritus dicit se annulum uxori tradere velle.

Because Latin often expresses reported statements with an accusative-and-infinitive construction instead of a separate word like that.

So instead of saying:

• The husband says that he wants ...

Latin says, more literally:

• The husband says himself to want ...

That is why after dicit you get se ... velle, not a clause introduced by a word meaning that.

Se is the reflexive pronoun, meaning himself / herself / themselves depending on context.

Here it refers back to maritus, the subject of dicit. So:

• maritus dicit se ... velle
  = the husband says that he wants ...

Latin uses se because the person who is said to want something is the same person as the subject of the main verb.

Because se refers back to the subject of the main clause, while is/eum would normally refer to some other person.

So:

• maritus dicit se velle = the husband says that he himself wants
• maritus dicit eum velle = the husband says that he (someone else) wants

In this sentence, Latin shows clearly that the one wanting is the husband himself.

In an indirect statement, the subject of the reported statement goes into the accusative, and the verb goes into the infinitive.

So in se annulum uxori tradere velle:

• se = subject of the reported idea, but in the accusative
• velle = infinitive verb
• tradere = infinitive dependent on velle

This is one of the most important Latin constructions to learn.

Because there is no other accusative noun available to be the subject, and the structure naturally works that way.

In se annulum uxori tradere velle:

• se = the one who wants
• annulum = the thing being handed over
• uxori = the recipient

So se is understood as the subject of both infinitives:

• se velle
• se tradere

In English, we do the same thing with he wants to hand over. The subject of wants and to hand over is the same person.

For two different reasons:

1. Velle is infinitive because it is part of an indirect statement after dicit.
2. Tradere is infinitive because velle normally takes a complementary infinitive: to want to do something.

So the structure is:

• dicit = he says
• se ... velle = that he wants
• tradere = to hand over

In other words, Latin is saying:

• He says [himself to want [to hand over the ring to his wife]].

Because after dicit in this construction, Latin does not use a normal finite verb like vult. It uses the infinitive.

Compare:

• maritus vult annulum uxori tradere
  = the husband wants to hand over the ring to his wife

But after dicit:

• maritus dicit se annulum uxori tradere velle
  = the husband says that he wants to hand over the ring to his wife

So velle is required by the indirect statement construction.

Annulum is accusative singular.

It is accusative because it is the direct object of tradere. It is the thing being handed over.

• tradere annulum = to hand over the ring

Its dictionary form would be annulus.

Uxori is dative singular.

It is dative because it marks the recipient, the person to whom the ring is being handed.

• annulum uxori tradere = to hand over the ring to the wife

Its dictionary form is uxor.

No. Here it is dative, not genitive.

• uxori = to/for the wife
• uxoris = of the wife / the wife’s

So annulum uxori tradere means to hand over the ring to the wife, not to hand over the wife’s ring.

Tradere literally means to hand over, deliver, pass on, or sometimes simply give depending on context.

With annulum, it suggests physically handing the ring to someone:

• annulum uxori tradere = to hand the ring to his wife

It is a compound of trans + dare, though learners usually just remember it as its own verb.

Because maritus is the subject of the main verb dicit.

So:

• maritus = nominative subject
• dicit = says

Then everything after that gives the content of what he says.

The word order is normal and clear, but Latin word order is much freer than English word order because the case endings show the grammatical roles.

So this sentence could be rearranged in various ways without changing the basic meaning, for example:

• Maritus se annulum uxori tradere velle dicit.
• Maritus dicit se uxori annulum tradere velle.

The original order is straightforward:

• Maritus = subject first
• dicit = main verb early
• then the reported statement

Yes. In indirect statement, the present infinitive usually shows action that is simultaneous with the main verb.

So dicit ... velle means:

• he says that he wants
  not
• he says that he wanted
• he says that he will want

Likewise, tradere here means the handing over is viewed as connected with that same time frame: he says that he wants to hand over.

Because se is a reflexive pronoun that does not distinguish masculine and feminine in this form.

So se can mean:

• himself
• herself
• themselves

You determine the actual meaning from the context. Here, since maritus is masculine singular, se means himself.

No. That would need a different construction.

In the actual sentence:

• se refers back to maritus
• uxori is dative, meaning to the wife

So the wife is the recipient, not the one doing the wanting or the handing over.

If the wife were the subject of the reported statement, Latin would need her in the accusative as the subject of the indirect statement, not in the dative.