Latin Phrase Constructions

The Infinitive Clause

The infinitive clause is one of the most oft used construction in Latin. Here is our model:

scio uitam esse breuem (I know that life is short)

And it has these characteristics:

It is completetive.
It is encountered after verbs expressing affirmation (to say, to tell, to report), opinion (to believe, to think), knowledge or on occasion, perception (to see, to learn, to hear of, to know).
The verb in the infinitive clause is, of course, in the infinitive mood and its subject is in the accusative.

Originally, what was being expressed was a sort of double complement:

scio uitam (I know life)
          +
scio esse breuem (I know how to be brief)
          =
scio uitam esse breuem (I know that life is short)

Already in classical times, the infinitive clause had begun to be little used by reason of its somewhat awkward and delicate construction. Instead, spoken Latin began to prefer a subordinate clause introduced by que, just as in all modern Romance languages.

The infinitive clause, very much alive also in classical Greek, is constructed by setting the subject of the second verb in the accusative and the verb itself in the infinitive (hence the name):

Credo deorum nos uidere. (“I believe that the Gods see us.”)

In French, some “latinists” as early as the XIIth century, but especially in the XVIth, attempted to resurrect the infinitive clause:

« Je les souffre regner ». (“I suffer them to reign.” —Corneille, character “Matamore” in his L’illusion comique)

This is an example of neoclassicism. In modern French, the vestiges of this construction can be seen only with verbs of perception:

Je vois les enfants courir. (“I see the children running.”)

However, it’s very much alive in English where it is the prefered construction in many cases where que or its descendant is used in Romance tongues:

I want you to go to school.

Ironically, as illustrated in the translation of the Latin example that began this section, this is not always the case:

Credo deorum nos uidere. (“I believe that the Gods see us.”)

The Infinitive Clause Is Used...

to translate the simultaneousness of the the action in the infinitive clause and that of the main clause, Latin uses the present infinitive:

Putauit se placare animos (he thinks he’ll calm the spirits)
(Note: French uses the present if the main clause verb is in the present or future, but the imperfect if it’s in the past.)

to translate that the action in the infinitive clause occurred prior to that of the main clause, Latin uses a perfect infinitive for the verb in the infinitive clause:

Putat se placauisse animos (he thinks that he calmed the spirits)
Putauit se plancauisse animos (he thought he had calmed the spirits)
(Note: French uses an appropriate past tense if the main clause verb is in the present, but always the pluperfect if the main clause verb is in a past tense.)

to translate that the action in the infinitive clause occurred after that of the main clause, Latin uses a future infinitive in the infinitive clause:

Putat se placaturum esse animos (he thinks he will calm the spirits)
Putauit se placaturum esse animos (he thought he would calm the spirits)
(Note: French uses the future if the main clause verb is in the present, but the conditional if the main clause verb is in the past.)

Use of Subject Pronoun in the Infinitive Clause

The subject pronoun is almost always expressed in the clause.
In the third person, the pronoun is reflexive if it represents the subject of the verb in the main clause:

Credit se esse beatum (he thinks he’s happy)

On the other hand, the antecedent is used to refer to another word than the subject of the verb in the main clause:

Credo eum esse beatum (I think he’s happy)

Use of Future Infinitive

The future infinitive indicates that the fact expressed in the infinitive clause occurs subsequent to that expressed in the main clause:
Putauit Numa se animos placatorum esse (Numa thought he would calm the spirits)
(Find more examples, especially in Virgil and Caesar.)