Learn Hardcore Latin: Scriptor iuvenis dicit se artem picturae ab avia didicisse, sed usu etiam nunc meliorem fieri. - The young writer says that he learned the art of painting from his grandmother, but that even now he becomes better through practice.

Word

Scriptor iuvenis dicit se artem picturae ab avia didicisse, sed usu etiam nunc meliorem fieri.

Meaning

The young writer says that he learned the art of painting from his grandmother, but that even now he becomes better through practice.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Latin

Lesson

Lesson 43

Breakdown of Scriptor iuvenis dicit se artem picturae ab avia didicisse, sed usu etiam nunc meliorem fieri.

Questions & Answers about Scriptor iuvenis dicit se artem picturae ab avia didicisse, sed usu etiam nunc meliorem fieri.

What is the basic grammatical structure of the sentence?

The sentence has:

a main clause: Scriptor iuvenis dicit = The young writer says
followed by an indirect statement: se ... didicisse ... sed ... fieri

So the overall pattern is:

[subject] + [main verb of saying] + [accusative + infinitive construction]

That is a very common Latin way to report what someone says, thinks, knows, or hears.

Is iuvenis an adjective here, or a noun?

Here iuvenis is best taken as an adjective modifying scriptor:

scriptor = writer
iuvenis = young

So scriptor iuvenis means the young writer.

That said, iuvenis can also be a noun meaning young man or young person in other contexts. Latin often uses words that can function either as nouns or adjectives depending on context.

Why does the sentence use se?

Se is the accusative reflexive pronoun, and here it is the subject of the infinitives inside the indirect statement.

After dicit, Latin does not usually say something like he says that he learned with a separate word for that. Instead it says:

dicit se didicisse = literally,