Infinitives in Latin: Your Ultimate Guide to Their Endings & Uses

Many of my students find Latin infinitives difficult, especially when it comes to their usage in indirect statements. So if you are struggling, you are not alone!

In this post I will explain how to form, recognize, and use infinitives in Latin. We will cover everything from basic infinitive endings to more advanced usages such as the historical infinitive.

The big takeaway is: infinitives are “unlimited” by person and number and thus can show up in many different contexts!

This post may contain affiliate links and I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. See my disclosures for more details.

What are infinitives in Latin?

An infinitive is a verbal form that lacks person and number. Infinitives capture the essence of a verb’s meaning without being limited by a specific circumstance.

English infinitives all begin with “to”. Examples are “to eat” and “to have eaten”.

The term “infinitive” derives from Latin infīnītīvus, which in turn comes from infīnītus or “unlimited”. Infīnītus also gives us English “infinite”, and I want you to bear this in mind as you read!

Most of the verbs that we encounter in English and in Latin are finite verbs. “Finite” is a fancy way of saying that these verbs are “limited” by conjugation.

An example will help clarify.

I am hiking up a small mountain.

“(I) am hiking” is a finite or conjugated verb. It indicates a specific person performing the action (that’s me) and a specific time frame (now).

“I am hiking” does not refer to the action of hiking in general, but rather to a specific instance of hiking.

Infinitives, on the other hand, are infinite in their application. Infinitives can refer to an action in general, and they can also have any subject or subjects.

To hike up a small mountain is hard.

The infinitive “to hike” refers to hiking in general. “To hike” can be applied to an unlimited number of circumstances.

Infinitives do not change their endings in Latin or in English. It does not matter who is ultimately performing the action of the infinitive.

I want to see the dogs. = Canēs vidēre volō.

The farmer wants to see the dogs. = Agricola canēs vidēre vult.

In the first sentence, I am the ultimate subject of “to see”. I want myself to see the dogs.

In the second sentence, it is the farmer who is the subject of see. The farmer wants himself to see the dogs.

Notice how the main verb (the finite, conjugated verb) changes from one sentence to another. I want (volō) but the farmer wants (vult). The subject changes, so the verb form changes.

But vidēre stays the same. This is because it is an infinitive and, remember, infinitives are not limited to a specific person or number.

In a moment I will explain what infinitives look like in Latin and then we will go over their various uses. But first I want to emphasize one last rule.

Infinitives cannot form a complete sentence on their own.

You can’t just say “to see” or “to hike”. That doesn’t tell your listener anything. You need to add a finite verb to convey the meaning of your sentence.

NOTE FOR ADVANCED STUDENTS: Historical infinitives are an exception to this rule, since they act like finite verbs.

Latin Infinitive Endings

Latin infinitives are formed in different ways. Unfortunately there isn’t a magical formula like in English, where we can stick “to” on the beginning of a verb.

Some Latin infinitives (present active, present passive, and perfect active) are one-word forms consisting of a stem plus an ending. Others (perfect passive and future active) are compound, two-word forms built from esse and a participle.

The following chart summarizes the formation of Latin infinitives. Take a look, but don’t worry about all the little details right now. We will go over everything step by step later in this post.

The “Example” column is especially helpful for giving you an idea of the range of Latin infinitives.

Infinitive	Example	Formation	Translation
Present Active	dēbēre = to owe	present stem + re	to blank
Present Passive	dēbērī = to be owed	present stem + rī (1st, 2nd, and 4th); present stem + ī (3rd)	to be blanked
Perfect Active	dēbuisse = to have owed	perfect stem + isse	to have blanked
Perfect Passive	dēbitum esse = to have been owed	perfect passive participle + esse	to have been blanked
Future Active	dēbitūrum esse = to be about to owe	future active participle + esse	to be about to blank
Future Passive*	dēbitum īrī = to be about to be owed	supine + īrī	to be about to be blanked

I have put an asterisk next to the future passive because this form doesn’t actually exist for many verbs. More about this below!

Present Active Infinitives

The present active infinitive is the most commonly used infinitive in Latin. It is also the first infinitive that you will encounter in your Latin studies, often in the opening chapters of your textbook.

When you look at Latin verb listed in a dictionary or textbook, the present active infinitive will be the second principal part.

👉 Not sure what that means? Read my introduction to Latin principal parts!

Take a look at the following photo. It shows the vocabulary list from Chapter 1 of Wheelock’s, a classic Latin textbook that I have taught with at Kenyon College and Wellesley College.

My finger is pointing at the second principal part of dēbeō: this is dēbēre.

Just above are the two verbs amō and cōgitō. Their second principal parts are amāre and cōgitāre, respectively.

It is a simple matter to find the present active infinitive because it is included in the principal parts list. But it is also easy to recognize these Latin infinitives by the endings themselves.

There are four standard present active infinitive endings. Each corresponds to one of the four Latin verb conjugations.

Conjugation	Ending	Example
First	-āre	cōgitāre = to think
Second	-ēre	dēbēre = to owe
Third	-ere	mittere = to send
Fourth	-īre	audīre = to hear

Notice that all these endings consist in a stem vowel (ā, ē, e, or ī) + re.

This Latin infinitive is incredibly important because seeing the stem vowel is the only certain way of identifying a verb’s conjugation.

It is also important because it allows us to identify a verb’s present stem.

👉 Want more information? Read my guide to Latin verb stems!

The present active infinitive is translated as “to _____________” or “to verb”.

I mentioned up above that present active infinitives are by far the most common. Now it’s time to discuss the other, rarer Latin infinitives.

If you are a beginning student, you will likely want to jump down to my section on infinitives in action. You can come back and learn about the other infinitives once you advance a bit more in your Latin studies!

Present Passive Infinitives

The present passive infinitive is – as you might expect – the passive counterpart to the present active infinitive. The standard translation is “to be ___________ed” or “to be verbed”.

I used to be a professor at Wellesley College and the college motto captures well the difference between present passive and present active infinitives in Latin.

Nōn ministrārī sed ministrāre. = Not to be served but to serve.

Motto of Wellesley College, based on Matthew 20:28 (Vulgate)

Ministrārī (passive) conveys the idea of being served or ministered to. Someone else is serving you.

It is contrasted with ministrāre (active), a form which describes the concept of serving or ministering. In this instance, you are serving someone else.

According to this motto, Wellesley alumnae should prioritize helping others rather than demanding help.

You may have noticed that ministrārī and ministrāre look quite similar. In general, the easiest way to form a present passive infinitive is to change the E at the end of a present active infinitive to an Ī.

Thus ministrāre becomes ministrārī.

Here are the present passive infinitive endings:

Conjugation	Ending	Example
First	-ārī	cōgitārī = to be thought
Second	-ērī	dēbērī = to be owed
Third	-ī	mittī = to be sent
Fourth	-īrī	audīrī = to be heard

Third conjugation deviates from the standard pattern. To form a present passive infinitive from a present active infinitive, you need to remove the entire –ere and then add –ī.

Take the verb scrībō, scrībere, scrīpsī, scrīptus ‘write’ as an example.

The second principal part, scrībere, is our present active infinitive (“to write”). First we remove -ere to get scrīb-. Then we add –ī to obtain the present passive infinitive, scrībī (“to be written”).

Perfect Active Infinitives

Perfect active infinitives convey the idea of having performed an action in the past. The standard translation is “to have ___________ed” or “to have verbed”.

But, as I will explain down below in the section on infinitive uses, perfect active infinitives should often be translated idiomatically.

I love perfect active infinitives because they are super simple. Every perfect active infinitive ends in –isse, regardless of conjugation. Even irregular verbs have regular perfect active infinitives!

To form a perfect active infinitive, find the verb’s perfect stem and add –isse. And that’s all there is to it!

Verb	Perfect Stem	Perfect Active Infinitive
cōgitō, cōgitāre, cōgitāvī, cōgitātus	cōgitāv-	cōgitāvisse = to have thought
dēbeō, dēbēre, dēbuī, dēbitus	dēbu-	dēbuisse = to have owed
mittō, mittere, mīsī, missus	mīs-	mīsisse = to have sent
audiō, audīre, audīvī, audītus	audīv-	audīvisse = to have heard
sum, esse, fuī, futūrus	fu-	fuisse = to have been

Remember: even highly irregular verbs like sum “to be” have regular perfect active infinitives. Cool, right?

Perfect Passive Infinitives

Perfect passive infinitives are the passive equivalent to perfect active infinitives. Since they are perfect, they convey that an action occurred in the past.

The difference is that the perfect passives focus on the action as having been performed. The standard translation is “to have been ___________ed” or “to have been verbed”.

Does this sound weird and clunky to you? Don’t worry, you are not alone.

Perfect passive infinitives appear much more frequently in Latin than in English, and this is because Latin uses infinitives in indirect statements. There are more idiomatic translations, and we will talk about them below.

For now, let’s focus on how to create perfect passive infinitives in Latin.

1. Find the verb’s perfect passive participle (this will be the fourth principal part).
2. Put the participle in the neuter singular (ending in –um).
3. Add esse.

The translation of perfect passive infinitives makes sense when you consider the two component parts. Perfect passive participles are translated as “having been ________ed”, and esse means “to be”.

Together, this produces “to be having been _________ed”. But this sounds even worse in English, so we simplify to “to have been __________ed”!

Verb	Neuter PPP	Perfect Passive Infinitive
cōgitō, cōgitāre, cōgitāvī, cōgitātus	cōgitātum	cōgitātum esse = to have been thought
dēbeō, dēbēre, dēbuī, dēbitus	dēbitum	dēbitum esse = to have been owed
mittō, mittere, mīsī, missus	missum	missum esse = to have been sent
audiō, audīre, audīvī, audītus	audītum	audītum esse = to have been heard

IMPORTANT: The perfect passive participle in the infinitive may change its gender and number based on the context of the sentence, but the default is neuter singular.

Future Active Infinitives

Future active infinitives are used in indirect statements to indicate that an action will occur in the future. Note that future active infinitives appear only in indirect statements.

In isolation, we can translate them as “to be about to _____________” or “to be about to verb”.

But in practice, future active infinitives are best translated into English as future indicatives (more about this below).

Future active infinitives are formed from future active participles combined with esse.

1. Find the future active participle of a verb.
2. Put the participle in the neuter singular.
3. Add esse.

A future active participle is translated as “about to __________”, and esse means “to be”. Combined, this produces “to be about to ____________”, which is exactly how we translate future active infinitives!

Verb	Future Active Participle	Future Active Infinitive
cōgitō	cōgitātūrus	cōgitātūrum esse = to be about to think
dēbeō	dēbitūrus	dēbitūrum esse = to be about to owe
mittō	missūrus	missūrum esse = to be about to send
audiō	audītūrus	audītūrum esse = to be about to hear
sum	futūrus	futūrum esse = to be about to be

IMPORTANT: The future active participle in the infinitive may change its gender and number based on the context of the sentence, but the default is to put the participle in the neuter singular.

Future Passive Infinitives?

Future passive infinitives do not really exist as such. But grammarians sometimes conceptualize the accusative supine + īrī (the present passive infinitive of eō) as a future passive infinitive.

This is imprecise, since the supine + īrī construction works a bit differently than infinitives do.

👉 Want to know more? My post on supines explains everything in more detail!

For the purposes of this post, I will note that the so-called “future passive infinitive” is easy to make.

1. Find the accusative supine (which looks like a neuter singular perfect passive participle).
2. Add īrī.

Supine forms do not exist for many Latin verbs. This gives you an idea of how rare they (and consequently future passive infinitives) are. But here are two examples:

Dō, dare, dedī, datus “give” has the supine datum. Thus the future passive infinitive is datum īrī, “to be about to be given”.

Agō, agere, ēgī, āctus “do, act” has the supine āctum. Thus the future passive infinitive is āctum īrī, “to be about to be done”.

Latin Infinitives in Action: 6 Important Uses

I have selected six key uses of Latin infinitives to discuss in depth. The different uses are organized roughly in accord with their difficulty, which also corresponds more or less to the order in which they are introduced in textbooks.

Before we dive in, I want to emphasize one thing: the present infinitive is the default infinitive in Latin. That is why most of my example sentences feature present infinitives.

Future infinitives appear only in indirect statements. Perfect infinitives can show up outside of indirect statements, but they are less common than present infinitives.

1. Complementary Infinitives

A complementary infinitive is an infinitive that completes the meaning of a verb. Complementary infinitives follow verbs of wishing, obligation, ability, daring, and more.

EXAMPLE #1:
Carmina audīre cupiēbam. = I wished to hear the songs.

EXAMPLE #2:
In hortīs ambulāre solent. = They are accustomed to walking / usually walk in the gardens.

EXAMPLE #3:
Fūr pecūniam condere diū nōn poterit. = The thief will not be able to hide the money for a long time.

EXAMPLE #4:
Nocte domī manēre dēbēs. = At night you should stay / ought to stay at home.

Notice how the infinitives (in bold) add essential context to the main verbs. Cupiēbam, solent, poterit, and dēbēs all make little sense on their own.

For instance, if I said, “They are accustomed!” and then stopped speaking, you would likely be confused. You would respond, “They are accustomed to what?”

In Example #2, ambulāre completes the meaning of solent. It tells us what they usually do: walk in the gardens.

Similarly, if I said, “The thief will not be able,” that does not give you much information. In Example #3 I need the infinitive condere to complete the meaning of the sentence.

Many verbs take a complementary infinitive. Here is a list of some common ones:

• volō, velle, voluī – wish, want
• nōlō, nōlle, nōluī – not wish, not want
• mālō, mālle, māluī – prefer
• cupiō, cupere, cupīvī, cupītus – desire, wish
• dēbeō, dēbēre, dēbuī, dēbitus – should, ought to
• possum, posse, potuī – be able to, can
• audeō, audēre, ausus sum – dare
• soleō, solēre, solitus sum – be accustomed / used to, usually do
• coepī, coepisse, coeptus – begin
• incipiō, incipere, incēpī, inceptus – begin

Complementary infinitives are generally present infinitives, either active or passive.

Let’s have one last example – one of Publilius Syrus’ sententiae!

EXAMPLE #4:
Miserum est tacēre cōgī, quod cupiās loquī. = It is wretched to be forced to be silent, when you want to speak.

Publilius Syrus, Sententiae M.6

There are two complementary infinitives here. The first, tacēre, completes the meaning of cōgī – another infinitive! So now you know that infinitives can have their own complementary infinitives.

If you are wondering what cōgī is doing, the next section will answer your question: it is an infinitive used as a subject! What is wretched? To be forced to be silent is wretched!

2. Infinitives as Nouns

Infinitives can act as verbal nouns conveying the idea of an action in general. The simplest format is for the infinitive to be the subject of a sentence.

EXAMPLE #1:
Vīvere est bonum. = To live / living is good.

Here vīvere is the subject of the verb est and is modified by the predicate adjective bonum. Notice that bonum is neuter singular: this is because infinitives are by default neuter singular when used as nouns.

Latin infinitives are indeclinable, so they can only act as nouns when in the nominative case or occasionally in the accusative. If you want to talk about the concept of “living” in a different case, you need to use a gerund.

Let’s look at some more examples.

EXAMPLE #2:
Linguam novam discere est difficile. = To learn / learning a new language is difficult.

As in Example #1, discere is the subject of the sentence. But this time discere has an accusative direct object, linguam novam.

Together linguam novam discere forms what we might call an “infinitive phrase”. Technically, this entire phrase is the subject of est.

Infinitives can also be predicate nominatives.

EXAMPLE #3:
Latīnē loquī est gaudēre. = To speak Latin is to rejoice.

Loquī is our subject infinitive here and gaudēre is a predicate nominative. In other words, this sentence equates speaking Latin with rejoicing.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell if the infinitive is the subject or the predicate nominative. This is because English often supplies a filler subject, “it”, so we can confuse ourselves in our translations.

EXAMPLE #4:
Fraus est accipere quod nōn possīs reddere. = It is deceitful to accept what you cannot give back.

Publilius Syrus, Sententiae F.7

Is accipere the subject? Or is it fraus? The sentence makes perfect sense in Latin, but when you try to translate it, things can get muddled.

Fraus comes first, but saying “Deceit is to accept what you cannot give back” does not really make sense in English. After all, deceit surely encompasses more than borrowing in bad faith, right?

The most natural English translation requires the addition of a placeholder subject, “it”. This is the translation which I have given above. “It is deceitful to accept what you cannot give back.”

But – you might object – fraus is a noun (“deceit”), not an adjective (“deceitful”). That is true. The most accurate reflection of the Latin construction requires rearranging the word order. “To accept what you cannot give back is deceit.”

I conclude that accipere (or technically, the whole phrase accipere quod nōn possīs reddere) is the subject. Fraus is the predicate nominative. The point of Publilius Syrus’ maxim is to define the action of accepting, not to define deceit.

Have I thoroughly confused you with these last few paragraphs of speculation? That’s all right! If you are a beginning student, the most important thing is for you to recognize that infinitives and infinitive phrases can act as nouns.

In all of the examples above, the verb est “is” appears. This is typical of sentences with infinitives as nouns. (You may also see other tenses of sum, e.g. erat “was”.)

Furthermore, all of the infinitives are present infinitives. This is also typical, although it is possible to have a perfect infinitive.

One more example, this time courtesy of Cicero:

EXAMPLE #5:
Loquor enim dē doctō homine et ērudītō, cui vīvere est cōgitāre. = For I am speaking about an educated and learned person, for whom to live is to think.

Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.111.10-12

Vīvere is the subject and cōgitāre is the predicate nominative. You could probably argue for the other way around, too. The point is that Cicero believes thinking is a critical part of living!

3. Infinitives with Impersonal Verbs

Next up is the use of Latin infinitives with impersonal verbs. We often conceptualize these infinitives as subject infinitives, so there is some overlap with the previous section.

An impersonal verb has no personal subject (I, she, they, the man, etc.). We use the filler subject “it” in English to make up for this fact.

In Latin, we simply put the verb in the 3rd person singular. Here are some common impersonal verbs:

• licet, licēre, licuit, licitum est – “it is permitted / allowed” (+ dative + infinitive)
• decet, decēre, decuit – “it is suitable / proper / becoming” (+ accusative + infinitive)
• libet, libēre, libuit, libitum est – “it pleases / it is pleasing” (+ dative + infinitive)
• oportet, oportēre, oportuit – “it is proper / right” (+ accusative + infinitive)

In Latin, impersonal verbs can take infinitives as their subjects.

EXAMPLE #1: Līberē loquī licet. = It is permitted to speak freely. / Speaking freely is permitted.

EXAMPLE #2: Decet pācem amāre. = It is proper to love peace. / To love peace is becoming.

We can translate impersonal verbs into English in various ways. Adding “it” often sounds more natural. But when you ask yourself, “what is it?”, the underlying subject becomes clear.

“It is permitted” – well, what is permitted? Speaking freely! Thus the infinitive phrase līberē loquī is our Latin subject.

Infinitives with impersonal verbs often take their own subjects in the accusative or dative. This allows for more specificity. It tells us for whom something is permitted, to whom it is pleasing, etc.

EXAMPLE #3: Mihi līberē loquī licet. = It is permitted for me to speak freely.

EXAMPLE #4: Omnēs decet pācem amāre. = It is fitting for all to love peace. / All should love peace.

In Example #3, mihi is what we call the “dative subject” of loquī. This is because I am the one who is able to speak freely.

In Example #4, omnēs is the accusative subject of amāre. Everyone should love peace.

When you are trying to determine the subject of an infinitive, ask yourself: Who is performing the infinitive’s action? Who is speaking freely? Who is loving peace?

Sometimes, of course, there is no explicit subject of the infinitive. We will explore the concept of infinitives with subjects more in the following two sections!

4. Infinitives with Subject Accusative (Commanding, Wanting, etc.)

Certain verbs of commanding, forbidding, allowing, wanting, etc. are followed by an accusative and an infinitive.

EXAMPLE #1:
Iubeō tē dīcere. = I command you to speak.

Tē, the accusative, refers to the person commanded (in blue). Dīcere is the action commanded (in red). Together, accusative and infinitive form what we might call a “substantive object clause”.

This is a fancy way of saying that the entire infinitive phrase – tē dīcere – is the object of iubeō. What do I command? I command you-to-speak.

We say that tē is a subject accusative because “you” perform the action of speaking. Dīcere thus has an accusative subject, something that is typical of infinitives.

Here are some common verbs that take an infinitive with a subject accusative:

• iubeō, iubēre, iussī, iussus – command, order
• vetō, vetere, vetuī, vetitus – forbid
• patior, patī, passus sum – permit, allow
• sinō, sinere, sīvī, situs – let, allow
• volō, velle, voluī – wish, want (and its derivatives, nōlō and mālō)
• cupiō, cupere, cupīvī, cupītus – desire, want

Notice that all these verbs relate to commanding, allowing / not allowing, and wanting. These are actions that involve a person trying to impose their will on someone else.

Let’s look at some more examples. In all of them the accusative subjects are in blue and the infinitives are in red. The entire infinitive phrase is put in bold.

Remember: we can consider the entire infinitive phrase to be the direct object of the main verb.

EXAMPLE #2:
Dux vetuit mīlitēs aquam hostibus dare. = The leader forbade the soldiers to give water to the enemies.

EXAMPLE #3:
Vōs sinō domum īre. = I allow you to go home.

EXAMPLE #4:
Omnēs urbem dēfendī et cīvēs esse salvōs volēbant. = All wanted the city to be defended and the citizens to be safe.

Infinitive phrases in Latin can be quite complex and can include their own objects, indirect objects, and more.

In Example #2, there are two accusative nouns: the first, mīlitēs, is the subject accusative, while aquam is the direct object. Hostibus is the indirect object.

When you have two accusatives in a row like this, assume that the first one is the subject (unless this does not make logical sense).

Example #3 shows us that sometimes the infinitive phrase can be separated. Here the subject accusative, vōs, comes before the main verb, while the rest of the phrase – domum īre – comes after.

Example #4 features two infinitive phrases linked by et. In the second phrase, notice that the predicate adjective salvōs is in the accusative case. This makes sense, if you think about it: cīvēs is a subject accusative, and salvōs refers back to cīvēs.

(Psst! Are you a beginning student? The next two sections deal with very advanced topics. I recommend skipping down to the conclusion. There is no point in overwhelming your brain; your time will come!)

5. Infinitives in Indirect Statements

Infinitives in indirect statements are technically a category of infinitives with subject accusatives. In fact, this usage is commonly referred to as the accusative-with-infinitive construction.

Indirect statements are a complex topic and I am currently writing a post dedicated to all their intricacies. But here are the essential points.

An indirect statement is formed when you report some sort of information indirectly. Compare the following English sentences:

DIRECT: The dog is running.

INDIRECT: My sister says that the dog is running.

INDIRECT: We thought that the dog was running.

INDIRECT: They will see that the dog is running.

A direct statement gives us information without intermediaries. The dog is running; that’s all there is to it. The statement could be a lie, of course, but we have no context for determining that.

The most obvious kind of indirect statement is reported speech. My sister reports that the dog is running, but I don’t see it myself. It might be true, it might not be: the point is that the action is presented indirectly, through my sister’s words.

Verbs of thinking and sensing can also introduce indirect statements. We thought that the dog was running. Once again, the action is stated indirectly, through the lens of our past thoughts.

Finally, the unknown people will see what is happening. The action is now mediated through their sight.

In English, we signal the beginning of an indirect statement with that. In Latin, we put the subject of the indirect statement in the accusative and the verb of the indirect statement becomes an infinitive.

And now, finally, I can explain why Latin has so many tenses of the infinitive. This is so that we can express past, present, and future actions in indirect statements.

This phenomenon makes the most sense when you see it in action. Consider the following three sentences:

EXAMPLE #1: Soror dīcit discipulum librum legere. = My sister says that the student is reading a book. [legere = present infinitive]

Example #2: Soror dīcit discipulum librum lēgisse. = My sister says that the student read a book. [lēgisse = perfect infinitive]

EXAMPLE #3: Soror dīcit discipulum librum lēctūrum esse. = My sister says that the student will read a book. [lēctūrum esse = future infinitive]

Example #4: Soror dīxit discipulum librum legere. = My sister said that the student was reading a book. [legere = present infinitive]

In Example #1, my sister is speaking in the present moment. The present infinitive legere indicates that the action of reading is happening at the same time as the action of saying – i.e., in the present.

So my sister says now that the student is reading now. Note that the super literal translation would be “My sister says the student to read a book”, but this sounds awkward in English.

In Example #2, my sister is still speaking in the present moment. But now the perfect infinitive lēgisse indicates that the action of reading happened before the action of saying, in the past.

My sisters says now that the student already read the book in the past. Again, we could create a super literal translation – “My sister says the student to have read a book” – but it is best to convert this into more normal-sounding English. You can translate the perfect infinitive like a perfect indicative.

In Example #3, my sister is speaking in the present moment. Lēctūrum esse is a future infinitive, so the action of reading will happen afterward.

My sister says now that the student will read the book in the future. The hyper-literal translation would be “My sisters says the student to be about to read a book”, but translating the future infinitive with a regular future tense verb sounds so much better.

Example #4 changes things up. Did you notice that dīxit is a perfect indicative verb? Yes, my sister in this scenario spoke in the past!

What does this mean? Well, remember how I said that infinitives express relative time?

The action of the main verb – saying – now belongs to the past. Our present infinitive, legere, refers to an action happening at the same time as the action of the main verb – which means the action of reading also occurred in the past.

My sister said in the past that the student was reading in the past.

This is a lot of information, and I have only covered the basics of indirect statements. I am currently writing a full post on the topic that will answer all your questions! For now, focus on the basic concept of relative time.

6. Historical Infinitives

The final usage of the infinitive that I will cover in this post is the historical infinitive. Present infinitives can appear in narrative accounts to explain actions that occurred in the past.

In this context, present infinitives are equivalent to imperfect indicatives. That is, they express ongoing or repeated action in the past.

This construction is characteristic of Roman historians such as Sallust and Livy, hence the name “historical”. Historical infinitives are descriptive and can make the action seem more vivid.

In his account of the Catilinarian conspiracy, Sallust frequently shifts between past tenses and historical infinitives. Catiline is the subject of the infinitives in the following excerpt.

Intereā Rōmae [Catilīna] multa simul mōlīrī: cōnsulibus insidiās tendere, parāre incendia, opportūna loca armātīs hominibus obsīdere; ipse cum tēlō esse, item aliōs iubēre, hortārī, utī semper intentī parātīque essent; diēs noctīsque festīnāre, vigilāre, neque insomniīs neque labōre fatigārī.

Meanwhile at Rome [Catiline] was undertaking many things at once: he laid traps for the consuls, prepared fires, took possession of advantageous places with armed men; he himself carried a weapon [literally: was with a weapon], (and) commanded others (to do) the same, encouraging (them) to always be alert and prepared; he was rushing about day and night, (and) staying awake, (and) he was fatigued by neither the insomnia nor the labor.

Sallust, Catiline 27.2

The rush of infinitives helps us to imagine the frantic energy of Catiline’s behavior. The asyndeton (lack of conjunctions) contributes to the effect – there are no “ands” in the Latin, just a build-up of infinitives.

The subject of a historical infinitive is in the nominative case. This makes sense considering that historical infinitives fulfil a narrative function equivalent to an imperfect indicative – indicatives always take nominative subjects, after all.

Final Thoughts on Infinitives in Latin

If you made it through this post, congratulations! Infinitives are not for the faint of heart.

It can be hard to take in everything all at once. If you are just beginning to explore this topic, then here’s my recommendation. Focus on learning the forms of present infinitives and two common usages: complementary infinitive and infinitive as a noun.

Speaking of infinitives as nouns . . .

An infinitive can be defined as a type of verbal noun that expresses an action in the abstract. This is the definition that I was taught growing up, and this is the initial definition given in my favorite Latin grammar book.

It makes sense in some respects. In this post we have seen many examples of infinitives used as nouns, after all.

But there are other uses of the infinitive that are hard to explain if we think of infinitives as nouns. Indirect statements and historical infinitives are two good examples.

I chose to emphasize the “unlimited” aspect of infinitives in the introduction to this post because this has proved helpful for my students in the past. But you can certainly conceptualize infinitives as verbal nouns – just don’t confuse them with gerunds or supines!

At the end of the day, the most important thing is to know the different contexts in which infinitives appear. So save this post and come back to it as many times as you need!

If you would like to dive even deeper into Latin infinitives, then I recommend the following even more exhaustive treatments:

✨Allen and Greenough’s, my favorite Latin grammar book, has copious information on infinitives. This is the first book that I reference when I am preparing lesson plans for my classes!

§451-463 introduce infinitives and their usages (including a few that I do not cover here). But that’s not all. Don’t miss §560-563 on substantive clauses and then §579-593 on indirect statements!

Note: Allen and Greenough’s is organized by sections (§), so those are the numbers I give above. Page numbers change based on the edition, but section numbers should not!✨

Looking for more good posts? You might enjoy the following:

How To Read Latin (More) Easily: Practical Tips

11 Essential Uses of the Latin Subjunctive

Sequence of Tenses in Latin

Latin Transitive, Intransitive, and Linking Verbs

My Favorite Latin Resources

FAQs about Latin Infinitives