Breakdown of Domani saliremo su quella nave per raggiungere l’isola e pescare con gli amici.
su
on
con
with
l'amico
the friend
e
and
Questions & Answers about Domani saliremo su quella nave per raggiungere l’isola e pescare con gli amici.
What’s the role of su in saliremo su quella nave? Why can’t we just say saliremo quella nave?
In Italian, to “board” a vehicle you use salire su (literally “to climb on”), similar to English “get on.” Salire alone often means “to climb” something (e.g. salire le scale = “climb the stairs”). So to say “we will board that ship” you need saliremo su quella nave. Omitting su would sound like you’re simply climbing the ship rather than getting on board.
Why is quella used? Could it be quel, quello, or quelle instead?
Quella is the feminine singular demonstrative adjective matching nave, which is a feminine singular noun.
- quel is masculine singular before most consonants
- quello is masculine singular before s + consonant or z
- quelle is feminine plural
Thus quella nave = “that ship.”
Why do we use per before raggiungere? Can’t we use a or drop it altogether?
Per + infinitive expresses purpose, i.e. “in order to.” Here it means “in order to reach the island and fish with friends.” You cannot replace it with a for this meaning. If you dropped per, you’d have to recast the sentence in the future tense for each verb (see a later question).