Maritus promittit se cras panem et caseum empturum esse.

Because se is the reflexive pronoun. In this sentence, it refers back to the subject maritus.

So:

• Maritus promittit = The husband promises
• se ... empturum esse = that he will buy ...

Latin uses se in this kind of construction when the person in the subordinate statement is the same as the subject of the main verb.

So se here means himself / he, referring back to maritus.

If Latin used a different pronoun, it could suggest that the husband is promising that someone else will buy the bread and cheese.

Because Latin often does not use a separate word meaning that after verbs like say, think, know, promise, and so on.

Instead, it uses a structure called the indirect statement:

• accusative subject
  • infinitive

Here that structure is:

• se = the subject of the indirect statement, in the accusative
• empturum esse = the infinitive phrase

So instead of literally saying The husband promises that he will buy..., Latin says something more like:

• The husband promises himself to be going to buy...

That sounds strange in English, but it is perfectly normal Latin grammar.

In an indirect statement, the subject of the subordinate clause goes into the accusative.

That is why Latin has:

• maritus = nominative, subject of promittit
• se = accusative, subject of empturum esse

So se is not the object of promittit in the ordinary English sense. It is the grammatical subject of the infinitive empturum esse, but in Latin indirect statement that subject is put in the accusative.

Because after promittit, Latin is using an indirect statement, and indirect statements use an infinitive, not a finite verb.

So instead of:

• promittit quod emet or something similar,

Latin normally says:

• promittit se empturum esse

The form empturum esse is the future active infinitive, and it means to be going to buy / will buy.

So the tense relationship is:

• promittit = promises
• empturum esse = will buy

This is the normal Latin way to express future action inside an indirect statement.

Empturum esse is the future active infinitive of emo, emere (to buy).

It is made from:

• the future active participle: empturus, -a, -um
• plus esse

Here the form is empturum, because it agrees with se.

So:

• empturus esse = to be about to buy / to be going to buy / to buy in the future

In this sentence, it is best translated simply as will buy.

Because empturum agrees with se, and se is accusative.

The future participle empturus, -a, -um behaves like an adjective, so it changes form to match the noun or pronoun it goes with.

Since se is:

• masculine
• singular
• accusative

the participle must also be:

• masculine
• singular
• accusative

So we get empturum.

If the subject were feminine, you would get empturam esse instead.

We know it from the meaning and from the antecedent of se.

The pronoun se itself does not show gender clearly here, but it refers back to maritus, which is masculine. Therefore the participle agreeing with it must be masculine too:

• maritus ... se ... empturum esse

If the subject were uxor instead, the sentence would be:

• Uxor promittit se cras panem et caseum empturam esse.

They are both accusative singular, because they are the direct objects of buying.

The verb emo takes a direct object in the accusative, so:

• panis becomes panem
• caseus becomes caseum

Thus:

• panem et caseum = bread and cheese

These are the things the husband is promising to buy.

Yes, it could go somewhere else. Cras means tomorrow, and Latin word order is much freer than English word order.

Here:

• Maritus promittit se cras panem et caseum empturum esse

places cras before the objects and close to the infinitive phrase. But Latin could also say, for example:

• Maritus se panem et caseum cras empturum esse promittit
• Maritus promittit cras se panem et caseum empturum esse

The meaning would stay basically the same.

The position of cras may slightly affect emphasis, but not the core grammar.

The sentence has two layers:

Main clause

• Maritus promittit = The husband promises

Indirect statement

• se cras panem et caseum empturum esse = that he will buy bread and cheese tomorrow

You can break the indirect statement down further like this:

• se = subject of the indirect statement
• cras = time expression
• panem et caseum = direct objects
• empturum esse = future infinitive

So the overall pattern is:

• subject + main verb + accusative subject + future infinitive

It comes from the verb emo, emere, emi, emptum.

This verb is a good reminder that Latin verbs often use different stems in different principal parts:

• emo = present stem
• empt- = supine / participial stem

The future participle is built from that later stem, so:

• emptum → empturus
• accusative masculine singular: empturum

So even though empturum may look surprising at first, it is exactly what you would expect from the principal parts of emo.

Not especially. Here se is mainly grammatical, not emphatic.

In English, himself can be emphatic:

• The husband himself will buy it.

But in this Latin sentence, se is simply the normal reflexive pronoun required by the indirect statement:

• The husband promises that he will buy...

If you wanted strong emphasis in Latin, you would usually need extra wording or a different arrangement.

No, not as it stands.

Because the sentence uses se, the natural meaning is that the husband promises that he himself will buy them.

If Latin wanted to say that he promises someone else will buy them, it would normally use a different accusative subject in the indirect statement, such as a name or another pronoun.

So se strongly ties the future buying back to maritus.