Magistra dicit ambitionem sine constantia cito cadere.

The teacher says that ambition without steadfastness soon falls.

Breakdown of Magistra dicit ambitionem sine constantia cito cadere.

• magistra: the female teacher
• dicere: to say
• sine: without
• cadere: to fall

Questions & Answers about Magistra dicit ambitionem sine constantia cito cadere.

Why is ambitionem in the accusative instead of the nominative?

Because this sentence uses indirect statement after dicit (says).

In Latin, after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, and perceiving, the thing that would be the subject of the reported statement usually goes into the accusative, and the verb of that reported statement goes into the infinitive.

So instead of saying something like ambitio cito cadit, Latin says:

• dicit ambitionem cito cadere = she says that ambition falls quickly

Here:

• ambitionem = accusative subject of the infinitive
• cadere = infinitive verb of the reported statement

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

Why is cadere an infinitive and not cadit?

For the same reason: after dicit, Latin normally uses indirect statement, not a clause with that plus a finite verb.

English says:

• The teacher says that ambition falls quickly.

Latin typically says:

• Magistra dicit ambitionem cito cadere.

So cadere is the infinitive because it belongs to the statement being reported after dicit.

If it were cadit, that would be a normal finite verb, and the sentence structure would be different.

What does sine constantia mean, and why is constantia in that form?