Learn Hardcore Italian: La firma del direttore verrà aggiunta dopo l’ultima revisione. - The director’s signature will be added after the final revision.

The passive future here is formed with the future tense of venire (in the third-person singular verrà) followed by the past participle aggiunta. It shifts focus onto the action (“will be added”) rather than on who performs it. Grammatically: verrà (future of venire) + aggiunta (past participle of aggiungere).

Could we use sarà aggiunta instead of verrà aggiunta?

Yes. Using essere in the future (i.e. sarà aggiunta) is equally correct for the passive voice. In many contexts venire and essere passives are interchangeable, though venire can sound a bit more dynamic or formal.

Why does aggiunta end with -a instead of -o?

Because in Italian the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject of a passive construction. Here the subject is la firma, a feminine singular noun, so the participle is aggiunta (feminine singular). The masculine singular form would be aggiunto.

What does del before direttore mean?

Del is the contraction of di + il, used to express possession. So la firma del direttore literally means “the signature of the director”, i.e. “the director’s signature.”

Why is there an apostrophe in l’ultima?

In Italian, when the definite article la meets a word beginning with a vowel (like ultima), the a of la is dropped and replaced by an apostrophe: l’ultima instead of la ultima. This avoids a vowel-to-vowel hiatus.

What is the role of dopo in this sentence, and can we use dopo che instead?

Here dopo is a preposition meaning “after,” followed directly by the noun phrase l’ultima revisione. You could also use dopo che plus a full clause:
“Dopo che l’ultima revisione sarà completata, la firma del direttore verrà aggiunta.”
But the original is more concise and very common in written Italian.

Why use the passive verrà aggiunta instead of an active construction like “they will add the signature”?

The passive places the emphasis on la firma (the thing being added) and keeps the agent unspecified, which is typical in formal or bureaucratic styles. An active version (“Aggiungeranno la firma del direttore dopo l’ultima revisione”) is possible but sounds more informal and requires stating who does the adding.

Why not say verrà firmata instead?

Saying verrà firmata would make the document itself the subject (“it will be signed”). Here the intention is to talk about the signature (the physical or digital mark) being appended, so we keep la firma as the subject and use verrà aggiunta. If you wanted to focus on the act of signing the document, you could say Il documento verrà firmato dal direttore.

How can I tell that revisione is a feminine noun?

Most Italian nouns ending in -ione (like stazione, situazione, decisione) are feminine. They take la in the singular and le in the plural. Here, l’ultima revisione follows that rule.