Frater dicit se ranas audire malle quam lacertas sub sole videre.

Because this is an indirect statement after dicit (says).

In Latin, after verbs like dicit, putat, scit, videt, and so on, the subject of the reported statement is usually put in the accusative, and the verb of that reported statement is put in the infinitive.

So:

• Frater dicit = The brother says
• se ... malle = that he prefers ...

Here se is the reflexive accusative pronoun, and it refers back to the subject of the main clause, frater.

So the sense is:

• The brother says that he himself prefers ...

If Latin used eum instead, that would normally mean that another male person prefers it, not the brother himself.

Because in an accusative-and-infinitive construction (often called indirect statement), the subject of the subordinate statement goes into the accusative.

So in English we say:

• The brother says that he prefers ...

But in Latin the structure is more like:

• The brother says him to prefer ...

That sounds unnatural in English, but it is normal Latin grammar.

So:

• se = accusative subject of malle

The main verb of the indirect statement is malle.

Structure:

• Frater dicit = main clause
• se ... malle = indirect statement

Then inside that indirect statement:

• ranas audire = to hear frogs
• lacertas sub sole videre = to see lizards in the sun

These two infinitive phrases depend on malle:

• malle = to prefer
• prefer to hear frogs
• rather than to see lizards in the sun

So audire and videre are complementary infinitives with malle, while malle is the core infinitive after dicit.

For two different reasons.

1. malle is infinitive because it is in indirect statement

After dicit, Latin commonly uses the infinitive:

• dicit se malle = he says that he prefers

2. audire and videre are infinitives because they go with malle

In English we also often use infinitives after prefer:

• he prefers to hear frogs
• rather than to see lizards

So:

• malle = to prefer
• audire = to hear
• videre = to see

Latin is stacking infinitives in a perfectly normal way.

Malle means to prefer.

It is the infinitive of malo, and it is an irregular verb. Historically it comes from magis velle, meaning something like to want more.

That is why it does not look like a regular third-conjugation infinitive.

Useful related forms:

• volo = I want
• nolo = I do not want
• malo = I prefer

So here:

• se ranas audire malle = that he prefers to hear frogs

Because they are the direct objects of the infinitives:

• ranas audire = to hear frogs
• lacertas videre = to see lizards

So:

• ranas is accusative plural of rana
• lacertas is accusative plural of lacerta

They are not the subjects of anything here. The only subject inside the indirect statement is se.

Because se is the subject of malle, and the actions expressed by audire and videre are the actions being compared under that preference.

So the logic is:

• he prefers [to hear frogs] rather than [to see lizards in the sun]

The same understood subject, se, goes with both infinitives unless Latin clearly signals otherwise.

So it means:

• he prefers hearing frogs rather than seeing lizards in the sun

not:

• he prefers that frogs hear
• or he prefers that lizards see

Quam means than.

It introduces the second half of the comparison:

• ranas audire malle quam lacertas sub sole videre
• to prefer hearing frogs rather than seeing lizards in the sun

So the comparison is between two infinitive phrases:

1. ranas audire
2. lacertas sub sole videre

Latin often uses quam exactly this way in comparisons.

Because quam introduces the second thing being compared.

Latin word order is flexible, but the grouping here is clear:

• ranas audire
• quam lacertas sub sole videre

That is:

• to hear frogs
• than to see lizards in the sun

So quam naturally stands at the start of the second compared phrase.

Sole is ablative singular of sol.

It is used because of the preposition sub.

Here sub sole means under the sun or idiomatically in the sun.

With sub:

• accusative often suggests motion toward/under
• ablative often suggests position or location

Since this sentence is about location, not motion, Latin uses the ablative:

• sub sole = in the sun / under the sun

It goes most naturally with videre.

So the phrase is:

• lacertas sub sole videre = to see lizards in the sun

That makes better sense than attaching sub sole to audire.

Word order in Latin allows this kind of separation, but the meaning is still clear from sense and structure.

Because classical Latin usually expresses reported statements after verbs like say, think, know, and hear with the accusative + infinitive construction instead of a that-clause.

So English says:

• The brother says that he prefers ...

But Latin normally says:

• Frater dicit se ... malle

This is one of the most important differences between English and Latin syntax.

They are present infinitives, and in indirect statement that usually shows action at the same time as the main verb of saying, thinking, etc.

So:

• Frater dicit se ranas audire malle ... means roughly:
• The brother says that he prefers to hear frogs ...

The preference is presented as current relative to dicit.

Likewise the hearing and seeing are part of that present preference, not actions clearly placed before or after it.

No. Ranas is accusative plural, so it is the object of audire, not the subject of it.

If frogs were the subject of audire in an indirect statement, we would expect a different construction, with the frogs as the accusative subject and a different sense overall.

Here the straightforward parsing is:

• se = subject of malle
• ranas = object of audire
• lacertas = object of videre

So the meaning is definitely:

• he prefers to hear frogs not
• he prefers frogs to hear

Latin word order is more flexible than English word order because Latin endings carry much of the grammatical information.

English depends heavily on position:

• subject + verb + object

Latin can move words around for rhythm, emphasis, or style.

This sentence is actually quite normal. A learner-friendly regrouping would be:

• Frater dicit [se malle [ranas audire] quam [lacertas sub sole videre]].

That makes the structure easier to see, even though the original order is perfectly good Latin.

A helpful breakdown is:

• Frater — subject of the main clause
• dicit — main verb
• se — accusative subject of the indirect statement
• malle — main infinitive of the indirect statement
• ranas audire — first infinitive phrase
• quam lacertas sub sole videre — second infinitive phrase of comparison

So the full pattern is:

• [Main clause] Frater dicit
• [Indirect statement] se ranas audire malle quam lacertas sub sole videre

That is the key grammatical structure to recognize.