After verbs of thinking, saying, believing, knowing, denying, and their ilk, the thing said, thought, etc. is put into indirect statement. The subject goes into the accusative and the verb into the infinitive form. The tense of the infinitive to be used depends upon the relation of the time of the verb in the indirect statement to the time of the main verb.

1. The present infinitive is used if the time of the main verb and of the verb of the indirect statement are the same: the present infinitive of contemporaneous action.

2. The future infinitive is used if the time of the main verb is before that of the verb in the indirect statement.

3. The perfect infinitive is used if the time of the main verb is after that of the infinitive. That is to say, the perfect infinitive should be used if the verb of the indirect statement is clearly prior to that of the introductory verb.

Formulae:

CHART TO SHOW THE TENSES OF THE INFINITIVE AND THEIR TRANSLATIONS

I "id facio" `I am doing it'

• dicit se id facere He/she says that he/she is doing it.
• dixit se id facere She/he said that she/he was doing it.

II "id faciam" `I shall do it'

• dicit se id facturam esse She says that she will do it.
• dixit se id facturum esse He said that he would do it.

III "id feci" `I did it' or `I have done it'

• dicit se id fecisse He/she says that he/she did it.
• dixit se id fecisse She/he said that she/he had done it.

Translate into Latin:

1. She said that she would do those [things].

2. I think that I will come. I thought that I would come.

3. They thought that we had made plans. They thought that we were making plans.

4. They believe that they are able to see us. They believed that they would be able to see us.

5. We think they are not good men. We thought that they had been good women. We thought that they would be good.

6. He thinks that he [himself] is better than most [people]. He thought that he [somebody else] was better than most [people].

7. They thought that they would find her. They thought that they had found her.