Breakdown of Disattiviamo la sirena a patto che tutto sia finito.
essere
to be
tutto
everything
finire
to finish
la sirena
the warning siren
Questions & Answers about Disattiviamo la sirena a patto che tutto sia finito.
What does disattiviamo mean here, and what form is it?
Disattiviamo comes from disattivare, meaning to deactivate, to disable, or to turn off.
Grammatically, it is the first-person plural present form, so it can mean:
- we deactivate / we turn off
- or, depending on context, let's deactivate / let's turn off
That second meaning happens because Italian often uses the noi form as a way to say let's ....
Why is there no word for we in the sentence?
Because Italian usually drops subject pronouns when the verb already makes the subject clear.
In disattiviamo, the ending -iamo already tells you the subject is noi (we). So noi is unnecessary unless the speaker wants emphasis.
For example:
- Disattiviamo la sirena = We turn off the siren / Let's turn off the siren
- Noi disattiviamo la sirena = We turn off the siren, with extra emphasis on we
What does la sirena mean here? Could sirena mean something else?