Latin for Beginners · Lesson LXXII · Part 15: Gerunds, reported speech and special cases
72. The verb eō; indirect statements
Goal: Your child conjugates eō (go) and its compounds and turns 'He says that…' sentences into Latin with an accusative and an infinitive.
You'll need
- The book (the lesson pages)
- A notebook and pencil
- Index cards from earlier lessons
What's in the book
The irregular verb eō (§ 412, full forms in § 499) and its compounds (§ 413), direct and indirect statements (§§ 414 to 416), tenses of the infinitive (§§ 417 and 418), verbs that introduce indirect statements (§§ 419 and 420), four set phrases, and fourteen Latin and five English sentences. The lesson starts partway down the page.
The lesson, step by step
Warm up
Your child gives the present, perfect and future infinitives of moneō (monēre, monuisse, monitūrus esse).
eō
eō means 'go'. Learn it from § 499: eō, īs, it; īmus, ītis, eunt; infinitive īre. Its compounds work the same way: adeō (go to, visit), exeō (go out), ineō (enter upon, begin), redeō (go back), trānseō (go across).
Indirect statement
'He says that the Gauls are brave.' Latin has no word for 'that' here. The verb becomes an infinitive and its subject goes into the accusative:
Dīcit Gallōs esse fortīs
Literally 'He says the Gauls to be brave.' The adjective agrees with Gallōs, so it is accusative too.
Which infinitive?
The infinitive keeps the tense of the original statement: present infinitive for what is happening, perfect for what happened, future for what will happen. Unlike English, it does not change after 'said': Dīxit Gallōs esse fortīs is 'He said that the Gauls were brave'.
Verbs that start it
Read the § 420 lists: saying (dīcō, negō, nūntiō, respondeō), knowing (cognōscō, sciō), thinking (arbitror, exīstimō, iūdicō, putō, spērō), perceiving (audiō, sentiō, videō, intellegō). Learn any that are new.
Latin to English
Do the forms of eō in items 1 to 4, then the sentences. Two of them:
Arbitrāmur potentiam rēgīnae esse maiōrem quam cīvium.
Helvētiī sciunt Rōmānōs priōrēs victōriās memoriā tenēre.
English to Latin and wrap-up
Write the five sentences. Before each, ask: what were the speaker's exact words? Memorize eō, the rules in §§ 416 and 418, and the § 420 verbs.
Afterwards
Two days: eō and the rules, then the exercises.
Tip
Write a direct sentence and its indirect form side by side on paper, as the book's teacher notes suggest. Seeing them together makes the pattern clear.
Answers to the book's problems
1. He goes, we go, go! (plural), to go. 2. To one going, to have gone, they will go, they go. 3. Of going, that they may go, you (plural) will go, you go. 4. That they might not go, go!, they were going, he had gone. 5. Caesar learned through scouts that the Gauls had crossed the river. 6. The Romans heard that the Helvetii would go out from their territory at the beginning of summer. 7. The envoys answered that no one before Caesar had visited that island. 8. The chiefs of the Gauls say that they will enter upon no plan against Caesar's authority. 9. We think that the power of the queen is greater than that of the citizens. 10. The Romans say that they will not take liberty away from the Gauls. 11. When these things were learned, we perceived that the envoys had not come to seek peace. 12. The Helvetii know that the Romans remember their former victories. 13. The allies, since they saw that many were being wounded, decided to return to their own territory. 14. Someone announced that Marcus had been elected consul.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.