Indirect Speech, Part 1

There's no doubt that the first time students run across indirect speech, they're somewhat surprised. After all, up to that point, it's nothing but nominative for the subject. Then we drop a bomb on them: well, actually accusative case can be a subject too. But only for infinitives.

In English, it's pretty easy to do indirect speech. Pop in your reporting method—see, hear, think, say, etc.—and add a that. You're on your way.

Direct: John is walking.
Indirect: I see that John is walking.

Latin is a bit trickier. There is no word that corresponds to "that". Well, there is, but it isn't used in classical Latin. For now, I'll pretend that medieval Latin doesn't exist. (Not true, it exists and is fabulous, but students should learn the classical version first.) Latin does something much different. It is almost as if you are joining two sentences together. English can, but rarely does, do the same thing. Let's look at a quick English example.

English acting like Latin: I know John to be walking.

See how there isn't a "that" in the sentence? Good. It is as if I joined these two sentences.

Sentence 1: I know John.
Sentence 2: John is walking. 

I did some grammar magic and got our example. This is what Latin is going to do.

Next: I explain it how Latin does it.