Mater promittit se vicinas quoque invitaturam esse.

to be

Breakdown of Mater promittit se vicinas quoque invitaturam esse.

• mater: the mother
• quoque: also
• se: herself

Questions & Answers about Mater promittit se vicinas quoque invitaturam esse.

What is the basic structure of Mater promittit se vicinas quoque invitaturam esse?

The sentence has:

• a main clause: Mater promittit = Mother promises
• an indirect statement (also called an accusative-and-infinitive construction): se vicinas quoque invitaturam esse

So literally the structure is:

• Mother promises
• herself to be going to invite the neighbors too

More natural English is:

• Mother promises that she will invite the neighbors too
• or simply Mother promises to invite the neighbors too

Latin often uses this accusative + infinitive pattern where English would use that plus a finite verb.

Why does Latin use se here?

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

Here it refers back to the subject of the main verb, Mater. So:

• Mater promittit = Mother promises
• se ... invitaturam esse = that she will invite ...

Latin uses se because the person doing the promising is also the person who will do the inviting.

If Latin used eam instead, that would normally mean her as someone else, not the mother herself.

So:

• se = she herself, referring back to