Breakdown of Il giornalaio all'angolo mi saluta e mi consegna la cartolina che avevi spedito.
e
and
mi
me
salutare
to greet
che
that
l'angolo
the corner
la cartolina
the postcard
a
on
il giornalaio
the newsagent
consegnare
to hand
spedire
to send
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Questions & Answers about Il giornalaio all'angolo mi saluta e mi consegna la cartolina che avevi spedito.
What does all’angolo mean, and why is it written with all’ instead of al or alla?
all’angolo means “at the corner.” It’s a contraction of a (at) + l’ (the) before a vowel. Since angolo is masculine singular and starts with a vowel, a + l’angolo becomes all’angolo.
Why do we see mi twice in mi saluta e mi consegna, and are they the same kind of pronoun?
mi means “me” or “to me.” In mi saluta, salutare is transitive (“to greet someone”), so mi is a direct object (“he greets me”). In mi consegna, consegnare takes two objects—the thing delivered (direct) and the recipient (indirect)—so mi is an indirect object (“he hands me the postcard”). The form is the same, but the grammatical roles differ.
Why is avevi spedito (you had sent) used in the clause che avevi spedito instead of a simpler past tense like hai spedito?
avevi spedito is the trapassato prossimo (pluperfect), formed with the imperfect of avere (avevi) + past participle (spedito). It shows that the sending happened before another past action (the greeting and delivering). If you simply said hai spedito, that’s the passato prossimo, which marks a past action without placing it in relation to another past reference point.
Could you use che hai spedito instead, and what difference would it make?
Yes, che hai spedito (you have sent / you sent) is grammatically correct and common in speech. It doesn’t explicitly mark the sending as prior to the greeting/delivery. Using che avevi spedito makes the sequence clear: first you sent it, then later I received it.
Why isn’t there a comma before che avevi spedito?
Because the relative clause is restrictive—it specifies which postcard I received. In Italian, restrictive clauses introduced by che are not set off by commas. A comma would imply extra, non‐essential information.
Why is che used as the relative pronoun here, rather than il quale or la quale?
Che is the default relative pronoun in Italian for both people and things, and it’s the most natural in everyday speech. Il quale/la quale are more formal or used when you need extra clarity (for instance, if there were two possible antecedents).
Could we rearrange the sentence elements? For example, say Il giornalaio mi saluta all’angolo e mi consegna la cartolina…?
Yes. Italian word order is fairly flexible. Moving all’angolo after mi saluta is perfectly fine and doesn’t change the basic meaning. The original order simply highlights the location right after introducing the newsagent.
What’s the nuance of consegnare here? Couldn’t you use dare or passare the postcard instead?
Consegnare means “to hand over” or “to deliver,” often with a shade of formality or officialness. Dare is more general (“to give”), and passare (“to pass”) is more casual and implies handing something over briefly. Consegnare fits because the newsagent is performing a small delivery of mail.