Puer procul stat et dicit se sex aves supra rivum volare videre.

Latin word order is much freer than English word order because Latin shows grammatical relationships mostly through endings, not just through position.

So in:

Puer procul stat et dicit se sex aves supra rivum volare videre.

you can understand the structure from the forms:

• puer = the boy
• stat = stands
• dicit = says
• se = himself
• aves = birds
• rivum = stream

A very English-like rearrangement would be:

Puer procul stat et dicit se videre sex aves supra rivum volare.

And in smoother English structure:

The boy stands far away and says that he sees six birds flying above the stream.

Latin often places infinitives and other elements where they sound natural rhetorically, not where English would put them.

Procul is an adverb, meaning far away, at a distance, or from afar.

Here it modifies stat:

• Puer procul stat = The boy stands far away / The boy is standing at a distance

Because it is an adverb, it does not change its ending.

A learner might expect something like a prepositional phrase in English, but Latin often uses simple adverbs where English might use far away or at a distance.

Stat specifically means stands or is standing. It gives a more vivid picture than est (is).

So:

• Puer stat = The boy is standing
• Puer est = The boy is (much more general)

Latin often chooses a more precise verb where English might use a form of to be.

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

In this sentence, se refers back to the subject of dicit, which is puer.

So:

• dicit se videre = he says that he sees

Latin uses se in indirect statement when the subject of the reporting verb and the subject of the infinitive are the same person.

So the sense is:

• The boy says that he himself sees...

If Latin used a different pronoun, it might suggest someone else.

Because Latin usually expresses this idea with an indirect statement, also called the accusative-and-infinitive construction.

Instead of saying:

• he says that he sees...

Latin says, more literally:

• he says himself to see...

That is why after dicit you get:

• se = the subject of the indirect statement, in the accusative
• videre = the verb of the indirect statement, in the infinitive

So:

• dicit se videre literally = he says himself to see
• natural English = he says that he sees

This is one of the most common Latin sentence patterns.

They do two different jobs.

1. videre

This infinitive belongs to the indirect statement after dicit:

• dicit se videre = he says that he sees

2. volare

This infinitive goes with sex aves after the verb of perception videre:

• sex aves volare videre = to see six birds flying

So the structure is:

• dicit
  • se videre
    • sex aves volare

In other words:

• He says
  • that he sees
    • six birds flying

This stacking of infinitive constructions is very normal in Latin.

Aves is accusative plural because it functions as the object of videre.

He sees six birds, so birds is the thing seen.

But there is something extra going on: in Latin, with verbs like see, hear, and know, the thing perceived can also be the subject of an infinitive.

So in:

• sex aves volare videre

aves is both:

• the object of videre (he sees the birds)
• the logical subject of volare (the birds are flying)

English does something similar:

• I see the birds flying

Latin uses the accusative for that noun:

• aves volare

Because after verbs of perception like videre, Latin often uses an accusative + infinitive construction to describe what is being seen.

So Latin prefers:

• sex aves volare videre = to see six birds flying

rather than:

• sex aves volant = the six birds are flying

The second is a complete separate statement. The first is a phrase built into the larger sentence.

Compare:

• Video aves volare. = I see birds flying.
• Video aves. Aves volant. = I see birds. The birds are flying.

The infinitive keeps the action tightly connected to the act of seeing.

Rivum is accusative singular.

It follows supra, which here means above or over. In standard classical prose, supra commonly takes the accusative.

So:

• supra rivum = above the stream

A learner might expect an ablative because many prepositions of place use the ablative, but supra normally goes with the accusative.

In this sentence, the most natural meaning is simply flying above the stream.

Supra tells you the spatial relationship: the birds are over the stream. It does not necessarily emphasize motion from one side to another.

So:

• supra rivum volare = to fly above the stream

If the context were different, English might translate it as over the stream, but the basic idea is position in relation to the stream, not necessarily crossing it.

Sex is an indeclinable numeral, meaning its form does not change.

So:

• sex aves = six birds
• sex pueri = six boys
• sex feminae = six women

The noun changes case as needed, but sex stays the same.

Here aves is accusative plural, but sex remains sex.

Because se in this kind of sentence normally refers back to the subject of the main verb introducing the indirect statement, here dicit.

The subject of dicit is puer, so:

• puer ... dicit se videre = the boy says that he sees

It would be very unnatural here for se to refer to aves, especially because the birds have not yet been introduced when se appears.

So the default reading is definitely:

• se = puer

Yes. A good way to read it is in layers.

Main statement

Puer procul stat et dicit ...

• The boy stands far away and says...

Indirect statement after dicit

se ... videre

• that he sees...

What he sees

sex aves ... volare

• six birds flying

Where they are flying

supra rivum

• above the stream

So the full structure is:

• Puer procul stat
• et dicit
• se videre
• sex aves volare
• supra rivum

That makes the logic much easier to follow:

The boy stands far away and says that he sees six birds flying above the stream.