How do you form an indirect statement in Latin?

Firstly, let's clarify the distinction between direct and indirect statement in English: Direct statement: "Mother loved dogs!" Indirect statement: Felix said that mother loved dogs. As you can see, to form indirect statement in English you simply add the phrase 'X said/ shouted/ exclaimed that' to the direct statement. In Latin it is a little more complicated. 'mother loved dogs' -> 'mater canes amavit' You do not simply add 'Felix said' - 'Felix dixit' to this phrase. Instead, indirect statement in Latin uses the accusative + infinitive construction. So 'mater' will go into the accusative and 'amavit' into the infinitive. 'canes' stays accusative, because it is still the object of the verb. 'mater canes amavit' -> 'matrem canes amavisse' Note that the infinitive is of the same tense as the original verb. 'amavit' is perfect so we need the perfect infinitive, 'amavisse', here, not the present infinitive, 'amare', which you may be more familiar with. So the full sentence is 'Felix dixit matrem canes amavisse'. Literally this means 'Felix said mother to have loved dogs', but this was just the Romans' way of expressing 'Felix said that mother loved dogs'. If we had used a present infinitive instead of a perfect: 'Felix dixit matrem canes amare', this would mean: 'Felix said that mother loves dogs'. Similarly, if we had used a future infinitive: 'Felix dixit matrem canes amaturam esse', this would mean: 'Felix said that mother would love dogs'. Remember, when converting direct into indirect statement, always retain the tense of the original.