Mater dicit se Romam ire velle, quia Romae soror eius habitat.

Because se is the reflexive pronoun in indirect statement, and it refers back to the subject of the main verb, Mater.

• Mater dicit se Romam ire velle = Mother says that she wants to go to Rome
• Here, she means Mother herself, so Latin uses se

If the sentence meant Mother says that another woman wants to go to Rome, Latin would use eam, not se.

So:

• se = herself, referring back to the subject of dicit
• eam = her, referring to some other female person

After verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, hearing, and similar verbs, Latin very often uses an indirect statement construction rather than a finite that-clause like English does.

The normal pattern is:

• verb of saying/thinking/etc.
• accusative subject
• infinitive

Here:

• dicit = says
• se = the subject of the indirect statement, in the accusative
• velle = infinitive, to want

Inside that indirect statement, ire depends on velle:

• ire velle = to want to go

So literally the structure is something like:

• Mother says herself to want to go to Rome

But in natural English we say:

• Mother says that she wants to go to Rome

Because one infinitive depends on the other.

• velle = to want
• ire = to go

So ire velle means to want to go.

This works much like English:

• I want to go
• She says that she wants to go

Latin expresses the whole reported thought with infinitives:

• se ... ire velle = that she wants to go

So:

• velle is the main infinitive of the indirect statement
• ire completes the meaning of velle

Because with names of towns and cities, Latin often uses the accusative without a preposition to show motion toward a place.

So:

• Romam ire = to go to Rome

This is a very common pattern:

• Romam venit = he comes to Rome
• Athenas navigat = she sails to Athens

A native English speaker may expect ad Romam, but with city names Latin usually does not use ad for simple motion toward.

Romae is the locative form, used for in Rome.

With names of towns, cities, and a few small islands, Latin often has special case forms for location:

• Romae = in Rome
• Athenis = at/in Athens
• domi = at home

So:

• quia Romae soror eius habitat = because her sister lives in Rome

A learner might expect in Roma, but with city names Latin normally uses the locative instead.

They show two different ideas:

• Romam = to Rome → motion toward
• Romae = in Rome → location

So the sentence contrasts destination and location:

• Mother wants to go to Rome
• because her sister lives in Rome

This is a useful pattern to remember with city names:

• accusative = motion toward
• locative = place where

This is a very common and important question.

In Latin, suus, sua, suum is reflexive and normally refers back to the subject of its own clause.

In the clause:

• quia Romae soror eius habitat

the subject is soror. So if Latin said soror sua, it would naturally mean:

• her own sister where her refers back to soror
• in effect, the sister’s own sister, which does not make sense here

But the sentence means Mother’s sister, not the sister’s sister. So Latin uses the non-reflexive possessive idea:

• eius = her / his / its, referring to someone else, here Mother

So:

• soror eius = her sister = Mother’s sister

We know from context and meaning.

In the clause:

• quia Romae soror eius habitat

the most natural referent for eius is Mater, the main person being discussed. The sentence is giving the reason Mother wants to go to Rome: her sister lives there.

Latin often relies on context for pronouns like eius. The form itself can mean:

• his
• her
• its

Only the context tells us which one is meant.

Because the sister’s living in Rome is presented as a current fact:

• quia Romae soror eius habitat = because her sister lives in Rome

The sentence does not suggest past time or future time. It is a present situation that explains the wish to go.

Also, after quia, Latin often uses an ordinary finite verb just as English does after because.

Because quia introduces a subordinate clause of reason, and such clauses normally use a finite verb.

So:

• quia ... habitat = because ... lives

This is different from the indirect statement after dicit.

The sentence has two different structures:

1. dicit se Romam ire velle
   an indirect statement after dicit

2. quia Romae soror eius habitat
   a reason clause after quia

So Latin is mixing two standard constructions, each in its normal form.

The word order is perfectly normal for Latin, though it may feel different from English.

Sentence:

• Mater dicit se Romam ire velle, quia Romae soror eius habitat.

A rough breakdown:

• Mater = subject
• dicit = main verb
• se Romam ire velle = indirect statement
• quia Romae soror eius habitat = reason clause

Latin often places important words in positions that emphasize them, and infinitives often come toward the end of their clause. English learners may expect a more rigid order, but Latin word order is more flexible because the endings show the grammatical roles.

An English-like order would be something like:

• Mater dicit se velle Romam ire

That would still be understandable, but se Romam ire velle is very natural Latin.

Not in good English. A more literal grammatical unpacking would be:

• to want to go to Rome

Latin uses infinitives where English also often uses infinitives, but the exact wording is not always identical. The safest way is to see the structure as:

• velle
  • infinitive = to want to ...
• so ire velle = to want to go

Grammatically, se is in the accusative case, so it looks like an object. But in the indirect statement, it functions as the subject of the infinitive.

That is one of the key features of Latin indirect statement:

• the subject of the reported statement goes into the accusative
• the verb of the reported statement goes into the infinitive

So in:

• Mater dicit se Romam ire velle

se is the logical subject of velle and ire, even though its case is accusative.

The dictionary form is volo, velle, volui.

It is irregular, and that is why the forms can seem surprising:

• volo = I want
• vis = you want
• vult = he/she wants
• velle = to want

In this sentence, we see the infinitive velle, because it is part of the indirect statement after dicit.

So learners should simply recognize velle as the infinitive of volo.

In standard classical Latin, with the name of a city, Romae is the normal form for in Rome.

So:

• Romae habitat = standard classical usage

Using in Roma would be nonstandard or at least much less idiomatic in classical prose. For learners, the best rule is:

With names of towns and cities:

• Romam = to Rome
• Romae = in Rome
• Roma = from Rome, in some contexts with the ablative of separation; though ex Roma or ab Roma can also occur depending on meaning

Because the second clause is not saying Mother lives in Rome. It is giving a reason involving someone else:

• because her sister lives in Rome

Latin, like English, does not repeat a noun unless needed. The sentence is already centered on Mater, and then eius efficiently links the second clause back to her.

So the structure is economical:

• Mother says she wants to go to Rome
• because her sister lives in Rome

That is exactly the kind of connection Latin often prefers.