Breakdown of Mater dicit pactum bonum inter vicinas servandum esse.
Questions & Answers about Mater dicit pactum bonum inter vicinas servandum esse.
After verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, and similar verbs, Latin often does not use a separate word for that. Instead, it uses the accusative-and-infinitive construction, also called indirect statement.
So in:
Mater dicit pactum bonum inter vicinas servandum esse
the part
pactum bonum inter vicinas servandum esse
means something like that a good agreement among the neighbors must be kept.
Instead of that + finite verb, Latin uses:
- a subject in the accusative
- plus an infinitive
That is why the sentence does not need a separate word for that.
Because it is the subject of the infinitive inside an indirect statement.
In English, we say:
- Mother says that the agreement must be kept.
In Latin, after dicit, the clause becomes an infinitive construction, and the subject of that infinitive goes into the accusative:
- pactum ... servandum esse
So pactum is not the direct object of dicit in the ordinary sense. It is the accusative subject of servandum esse.
This is a very common Latin pattern:
- dicit puerum venire = he says that the boy is coming