An indirect statement reports what someone says, thinks, or knows: "I think that Mārcus is here", "she knows that the boys are sleeping".
Can recognize Simple indirect statement recognition in a short Latin prompt
Schau dir diese Beispiele an. Kannst du das grammatische Muster erkennen?
He says that the girl is coming.
I think that you are mistaken.
Achte auf die hervorgehobenen Teile. Was haben sie gemeinsam?
An indirect statement reports what someone says, thinks, or knows: "I think that Mārcus is here", "she knows that the boys are sleeping". Latin builds this very differently from English, and recognizing the pattern early prevents a lot of misreading. At A1 you only need to spot it, not produce it.
The recipe has two parts. After a verb of saying or thinking (such as dico "I say", putō "I think", scio "I know"), Latin puts:
Examples:
For English speakers: your instinct is to look for the word "that" and then a normal subject-verb clause. Latin gives you neither. There is no word for "that" here, and the reported subject wears an accusative ending (Marcum, puellam, Romam) that makes it look like a direct object. The trick is: when a verb of thinking or saying is followed by an accusative noun plus an infinitive, translate the pair as "that [noun] [verbs]". So puellam dormire becomes "that the girl is sleeping", not "the girl to sleep".
Wende diese Grammatik in den Übungen des Kurses A1 an
ÜbungsaufgabenHe says that the girl is coming.
There is no word for 'that'. The subject goes into the accusative and the verb into the infinitive - the accusative and infinitive construction.
I think that you are mistaken.
Te is accusative, errare infinitive. A word-for-word rendering gives nonsense; the whole clause has to be rebuilt.
Im Kurs üben
Wende diese Grammatik in den Übungen des Kurses A1 an