Avus dicit pietatem in parvis officiis cotidie videri.

The sentence has two layers:

• Avus dicit = Grandfather says
• pietatem in parvis officiis cotidie videri = what he says

That second part is an indirect statement, which is a very common Latin construction after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, and perceiving.

So the pattern is:

• main clause: Avus dicit
• indirect statement: pietatem ... videri

In smoother grammatical terms, Latin is doing:

• Grandfather says
• piety/devotion to be seen daily in small acts of duty

which English usually turns into:

• Grandfather says that piety is seen daily in small acts of duty.

Because in Latin indirect statement, the subject of the subordinate idea goes into the accusative, not the nominative.

So here:

• pietatem is the thing that is being seen
• it is the subject of the infinitive videri
• therefore it appears in the accusative

If the sentence were a direct statement, you would expect nominative:

• Pietas in parvis officiis cotidie videtur
  = Piety is seen daily in small acts of duty

But after dicit, Latin changes that into indirect statement:

• dicit pietatem ... videri

This is often called the accusative-and-infinitive construction.

Because after dicit, Latin normally uses an infinitive in indirect statement.

Compare:

• Pietas videtur = Piety is seen
• Avus dicit pietatem videri = Grandfather says that piety is seen

So Latin does not usually say something like Avus dicit quod pietas videtur in standard classroom prose. Instead, it prefers:

• accusative subject
  • infinitive

That is why videri is infinitive.

Videri is the present passive infinitive of video, videre.

Its parts are:

• videre = to see active infinitive
• videri = to be seen passive infinitive

So here it means:

• to be seen
• or more naturally in English, is seen

Because the main verb is dicit in the present, the present infinitive videri usually suggests action happening at the same time as the saying:

• he says that piety is seen

Because in this kind of sentence Latin usually does not need a separate word for that.

English says:

• Grandfather says that piety is seen...

Latin usually says:

• Avus dicit pietatem ... videri

The idea of that is built into the accusative + infinitive construction itself.

So when you see:

• a verb like dicit
• followed by an accusative noun
• and then an infinitive

you should often read it as says that...

In parvis officiis means something like:

• in small duties
• in small services
• in little acts of duty

Here in is followed by the ablative because it expresses location or sphere, not motion toward something.

So:

• in + ablative = in / within / among
• parvis officiis is ablative plural

You can think of the phrase as describing the setting or area in which pietas is seen:

• piety is seen in small acts of duty

Officium is a word with a broad range of meanings, including:

• duty
• service
• obligation
• kindness
• courteous act
• official duty in some contexts

In this sentence, parvis officiis probably means something like:

• small acts of duty
• small services
• little everyday acts of helpfulness or obligation

So the idea is not necessarily about a formal job or office. It is more about modest, ordinary actions that show devotion or dutifulness.

Not necessarily. Pietas in Latin is broader than the English word piety often is.

It can include:

• dutifulness
• devotion
• loyalty
• proper respect
• duty toward family, gods, country, or other obligations

So in this sentence, pietatem may suggest:

• dutiful devotion
• faithful concern for what one ought to do
• piety in a broad moral sense

A learner should be careful not to make it too narrowly religious unless the context clearly points that way.

Cotidie means daily or every day.

Here it most naturally modifies videri:

• to be seen daily
• is seen every day

So the idea is:

• piety is seen every day
• specifically, it is seen every day in small acts of duty

Latin word order is flexible, so cotidie does not have to stand right next to the word it modifies.

Because Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

English depends heavily on position:

• Grandfather says that piety is seen daily in small duties

Latin depends more on endings:

• Avus is nominative, so it is the subject of dicit
• pietatem is accusative, so it is the subject of the infinitive in indirect statement
• officiis is ablative, so it belongs with in

That means Latin can arrange words for emphasis, rhythm, or style without changing the core meaning.

In this sentence, the order is fairly natural, but not the only possible one. For example, Latin could move cotidie or in parvis officiis elsewhere and still mean basically the same thing.

Yes. The direct version would be:

• Pietas in parvis officiis cotidie videtur.
• Piety is seen daily in small acts of duty.

Then if you add Avus dicit, Latin changes that direct statement into indirect statement:

• Avus dicit pietatem in parvis officiis cotidie videri.

So the changes are:

• pietas → pietatem
• videtur → videri

That is a very useful transformation to practice, because it helps you recognize how indirect statement works.