Breakdown of Piscator dicit se hodie e portu non exiturum esse, quia fluctus nimis magni sunt.
esse
to be
non
not
magnus
great
dicere
to say
Questions & Answers about Piscator dicit se hodie e portu non exiturum esse, quia fluctus nimis magni sunt.
Why is se used instead of eum?
Because this is an indirect statement after dicit.
In Latin, when the subject of the main verb and the subject of the indirect statement are the same person, Latin normally uses the reflexive pronoun se.
So:
- Piscator dicit se ... exiturum esse = The fisherman says that he ... will go out
- Here he means the fisherman himself
If Latin used eum, that would normally mean some other male person, not the fisherman.
So se tells you clearly: the person who is speaking and the person who is supposedly going out are the same.
Why do we get se ... exiturum esse instead of a normal finite verb like exibit?
Because after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, perceiving, and similar verbs, Latin often uses an indirect statement construction.
That construction is:
- accusative subject
- infinitive verb
So after dicit:
- se = accusative subject of the indirect statement
- exiturum esse = infinitive expressing what he says
A literal breakdown is something like:
- Piscator dicit
- se
- hodie e portu non exiturum esse
= The fisherman says = =