Infinitives
Just as a participle is a verb acting as an adjective, the infinitive is a verb acting as a noun. Most Latin verbs have 6 infinitives:
present active
present passive
perfect active
perfect passive
future active
future passive
Formation of the infinitive
| Active | Passive | |
| Present | = 2nd principal part amāre, vidēre, etc. |
-ārī, -ērī, -ī, -īrī amārī, vidērī, regī, etc. |
| Perfect | Perfect stem + -isse amāvisse, vīdisse, etc. |
Perfect pass. participle + esse vīsum esse, dīctum esse, etc. |
| Future | Future active participle + esse ductūrum esse, captūrum esse, etc. |
Perfect pass. participle + īrī ductūrum īrī, captūrum īrī, etc. |
Translations
amāre, 'to love'
amārī, 'to be loved'
amāvisse, 'to have loved'
amātum esse, 'to have been loved'
amātūrum esse, 'to be about to love'
amātum īrī, 'to be about to be loved'
Indirect statement
There are two ways to report someone else's speech: simple direct quotation, with the words unaltered—
Ennius dicit, 'puer est turpis'.
or indirect statement, which adapts the quote grammatically to fit inside its own sentence.
Ennius dicit puerum esse turpem.
Indirect statement is built from 3 parts:
1. a 'head' verb; a verb of saying, thinking, knowing, feeling, etc.
e.g., dīcō, negō, narrō, scrībō, moneō, sciō, intellegō, putō, videō, etc.
2. a subject in the accusative
3. an infinitive
So in the example above:
1. = dicit
2. = puerum
3. = esse
(If anything modifies the subject [like turpem here], it is in agreement)
Translation
In indirect statement, the infinitive is not acting as an infinitive, but as a substitute for the regular, finite verb, with tense. The infinitive in indirect statement gives relative time (like the participle).
| dicunt | puerum amāre puellam puerum amāvisse puellam puerum amātūrum esse puellam |
| dīxērunt | puerum amāre puellam puerum amāvisse puellam puerum amātūrum esse puellam |
| dicent | puerum amāre puellam puerum amāvisse puellam puerum amātūrum esse puellam |
Exempla
ille dicit, 'Antōnius amat Cleopatram.'
ille dicit Antōnium amāre Cleopatram.
ille dicit Antōnium amāvisse Cleopatram.
ille dicit Antōnium amātūrum esse Cleopatram.
ille dicit, 'Caesar ab omnibus amātur.'
ille dicit Caesarem ab omnibus amārī.
ille dicit Caesarem ab omnibus amātum esse.
ille dicit, 'Caesar necat bonum ducem.'
ille dicit Caesarem necāre bonum ducem.
ille dicit Caesarem necāvisse bonum ducem.
ille dicit Caesarem necātūrum esse bonum ducem.
ille dicit, 'Caesar habet magnam hastam.'
ille dicit Caesarem habēre magnam hastam.
ille dicit Caesarem habuisse magnam hastam.
ille dicit Caesarem habitūrum esse magnam hastam.