Magistra dicit se mendacium odisse et veritatem palam laudare.

Se is the reflexive pronoun. In this sentence, it refers back to the subject of dicit, which is magistra.

So:

• Magistra dicit... = The teacher says...
• se... odisse et... laudare = that she hates... and praises...

Latin uses se in this kind of situation because the person being talked about inside the reported statement is the same as the subject of the main verb.

If Latin used eam instead, that would normally suggest some other woman, not the teacher herself.

Because after dicit, Latin often uses an indirect statement construction, also called the accusative-and-infinitive construction.

Instead of saying:

• The teacher says that she hates... and praises...

Latin says, more literally:

• The teacher says herself to hate... and to praise...

So:

• dicit = the main finite verb, says
• se = the subject of the reported statement, in the accusative
• odisse and laudare = infinitives expressing what she says

This is one of the most important Latin sentence patterns.

Yes. Se is understood as the subject of both infinitives.

So the structure is:

• se mendacium odisse
• et veritatem palam laudare

That means:

• that she hates falsehood / a lie
• and openly praises truth

Latin does not need to repeat se before the second infinitive, because it naturally carries over.

They are the direct objects of the infinitives:

• mendacium is the object of odisse
• veritatem is the object of laudare

So:

• odisse mendacium = to hate falsehood / a lie
• laudare veritatem = to praise truth

Even though se is also accusative, it has a different job: it is the subject of the infinitives in indirect statement. So in this clause Latin has:

• accusative subject: se
• accusative object: mendacium
• accusative object: veritatem

That may feel strange to an English speaker, but it is completely normal in Latin indirect statement.

Because odi, odisse (to hate) is an irregular verb.

A very important point: odi is historically a perfect form, but it has a present meaning.

So:

• odi = I hate
• odisti = you hate
• odit = he/she hates
• odisse = to hate

This is why odisse may look odd at first. It is the normal infinitive used with this verb.

Palam is an adverb. Here it modifies laudare.

So veritatem palam laudare means to praise the truth openly or to praise the truth in public.

A learner may expect an adverb ending in -e, but not all Latin adverbs are formed that way. Palam is simply an adverb in its own right.

Et connects the two infinitive phrases:

• se mendacium odisse
• (se) veritatem palam laudare

In other words, the teacher says two things about herself:

1. that she hates falsehood
2. that she openly praises truth

So et joins two coordinated parts of the same indirect statement.

Because Latin usually does not use a conjunction equivalent to English that in this construction.

English says:

• The teacher says that she hates falsehood.

Latin prefers:

• The teacher says herself to hate falsehood.

So the idea of English that is expressed by the whole accusative + infinitive structure, not by a separate word.

Latin has no articles.

That means a noun like magistra can mean:

• the teacher
• a teacher

and mendacium can mean:

• a lie
• the lie
• falsehood in a more general sense

The exact choice in English depends on context and on what sounds natural in translation.

Latin word order is fairly flexible, because the endings show each word’s role.

This sentence is perfectly normal as written:

• Magistra dicit se mendacium odisse et veritatem palam laudare.

But Latin could rearrange parts of it without changing the basic meaning, for example:

• Magistra se mendacium odisse et veritatem palam laudare dicit.

The important thing is to recognize the structure:

• Magistra = subject of the main verb
• dicit = main verb
• se ... odisse et ... laudare = indirect statement

So for reading Latin, it is usually better to focus on endings and construction than on trying to force English-style word order onto the sentence.