A belief and its infinitive content
An original exercise presents the sentence „νομίζω τὸν φίλον σοφὸν εἶναι.“ The learner must explain the construction rather than simply matching one familiar Greek word to an English gloss. One draft makes τὸν φίλον an ordinary direct object of εἶναι and translates σοφὸν as the subject. Another deletes νομίζω and writes only „The friend is wise“, treating a represented belief as an independently verified assertion. A third recognises the infinitive but claims that every Greek infinitive in every construction must have an explicitly written accusative subject. The task asks for the roles of the accusative expressions and a natural translation of this particular indirect statement. There is no additional evidence about the friend’s character, identity or actual conduct, and no ancient author is claimed as the source of this newly composed example.
1. Explain τὸν φίλον, σοφὸν and εἶναι.
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Τὸν φίλον is the accusative subject of εἶναι in this indirect statement. Σοφὸν is the agreeing accusative predicate adjective. Εἶναι is the infinitive of being, not a finite verb with a separately expressed person.
2. Translate and evaluate the two generalizations.
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I think that the friend is wise. The sentence reports the speaker’s belief; it does not independently establish wisdom. This construction has an expressed accusative subject, but other Greek infinitive constructions can use different subject arrangements or omit a subject recoverable from context.