Iudex dicit hereditatem sine bono tutore saepe in periculo esse.

The judge says that an inheritance is often in danger without a good guardian.

Breakdown of Iudex dicit hereditatem sine bono tutore saepe in periculo esse.

• esse: to be
• in: in
• saepe: often
• bonus: good

Questions & Answers about Iudex dicit hereditatem sine bono tutore saepe in periculo esse.

Why is hereditatem in the accusative, even though it is the subject of esse?

Because Latin uses the accusative-and-infinitive construction after verbs like dicit (says).

So in:

• Iudex dicit = The judge says
• hereditatem ... esse = that the inheritance ... is

In this construction, the subject of the infinitive (esse) is put in the accusative, not the nominative. So hereditatem is the logical subject of esse, even though it looks like an object.

This is very common in Latin:

• Puella dicit se venire = The girl says that she is coming

Here se is accusative, but it is the subject of venire.

Why does Latin use esse instead of est here?

Because this is an indirect statement.

After dicit, Latin does not normally use a full finite clause with quod the way English uses that. Instead, it usually uses:

• accusative subject + infinitive

So:

• hereditatem ... esse = that the inheritance is ...

If Latin used est, that would make it a direct finite statement instead of the normal indirect-statement pattern.