Mater dicit magistram mox adfuturam esse.

to be

Breakdown of Mater dicit magistram mox adfuturam esse.

• mater: the mother
• magistra: the female teacher
• mox: soon

Questions & Answers about Mater dicit magistram mox adfuturam esse.

Why is magistram in the accusative instead of magistra?

Because after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, and perceiving, Latin often uses an accusative-and-infinitive construction instead of a full subordinate clause.

So instead of saying something literally like Mother says that the teacher..., Latin says:

• Mater dicit
• magistram ... esse

Here, magistram is the subject of the infinitive esse, and in this construction that subject goes into the accusative.

So:

• magistra = the teacher, as a normal subject
• magistram = the teacher, as the subject of the infinitive after dicit

Why does Latin use adfuturam esse here?

Adfuturam esse is the future infinitive of adsum, meaning to be present, to be here, or to arrive / be coming depending on context.

Latin needs the future infinitive here because the action is future relative to the main verb dicit.

So the sentence means:

• Mother says
• the teacher will be here / will soon arrive

That future idea is shown by:

• adfuturam = future active participle, feminine accusative singular
• esse = infinitive of to be

Together they mean / / more naturally, .