Word
Mater dicit ampullam in armario poni debere.
Meaning
Mother says that the bottle ought to be placed in the cupboard.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Mater dicit ampullam in armario poni debere.
in
in
mater
the mother
dicere
to say
debere
ought to
Questions & Answers about Mater dicit ampullam in armario poni debere.
Why is ampullam in the accusative?
Because ampullam is the subject of the infinitive phrase poni debere inside an indirect statement.
After verbs like dicit (says), Latin often does not use a word like that plus a finite verb. Instead, it uses:
- an accusative subject
- plus an infinitive
So the pattern is:
- Mater dicit = Mother says
- ampullam poni debere = that the bottle ought to be placed
Even though ampullam is the thing being placed, it still goes into the accusative because it is the subject of the infinitive construction.
Why is it poni and not ponere?
Poni is the present passive infinitive of pono, ponere.
- ponere = to place, to put
- poni = to be placed, to be put
Here the bottle is not doing the action. The bottle is receiving the action. So Latin uses the passive:
- ampullam poni debere = the bottle ought to be placed
If the sentence had ponere, it would mean the bottle ought to place something, which does not make sense here.
How does dicit work with the rest of the sentence?