Questions & Answers about Mater dicit se ad forum ituram esse.
Why is se used instead of eam?
Because se is the reflexive pronoun, and it refers back to the subject of the main verb, here Mater.
So Mater dicit se ... means Mother says that she herself ...
If the sentence meant Mother says that another woman is going..., Latin would normally use eam, not se.
- Mater dicit se ad forum ituram esse = Mother says that she herself is going to the forum.
- Mater dicit eam ad forum ituram esse = Mother says that that other woman / her is going to the forum.
This is a very common point in Latin indirect statement.
Why is se in the accusative?
Because after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, hearing, and similar verbs, Latin usually uses an indirect statement construction called the accusative and infinitive.
That means:
- the subject of the reported statement goes into the accusative
- the verb of the reported statement goes into an infinitive
So in Mater dicit se ad forum ituram esse:
- dicit = she says
- se = the subject of the reported statement, in the accusative
- ituram esse = the infinitive part
In English we would often use that:
- Mother says that she is going to the forum
Latin usually does not use a that-clause here. It uses accusative + infinitive instead.