Mater existimat puellam veritatem dicere.

the girl

Breakdown of Mater existimat puellam veritatem dicere.

• mater: the mother
• dicere: to tell
• veritas: the truth

Questions & Answers about Mater existimat puellam veritatem dicere.

Why is puellam in the accusative instead of puella?

Because after existimat Latin is using an indirect statement construction, often called the accusative-and-infinitive construction.

In English we say Mother thinks that the girl is telling the truth.
In Latin, instead of a that-clause, the subject of the embedded statement becomes accusative, and the verb becomes an infinitive:

• puellam = the girl as the subject of the indirect statement
• dicere = to say / to be saying

So puellam dicere means that the girl is speaking / saying.

What kind of verb is dicere here?

Dicere is the present active infinitive of dico, dicere, meaning to say or to speak.

Here it is not functioning as a simple English-style infinitive like to speak after another verb. Instead, it is the verb of the indirect statement introduced by existimat.

So:

• existimat = she thinks
• puellam veritatem dicere = that the girl is telling the truth

Together: Mother thinks that the girl is telling the truth.

Why is veritatem also accusative?