Se il piumone fosse più leggero, non avrei caldo di notte.

If the duvet were lighter, I would not be hot at night.

Breakdown of Se il piumone fosse più leggero, non avrei caldo di notte.

• essere: to be
• di: of
• non: not
• se: if

Questions & Answers about Se il piumone fosse più leggero, non avrei caldo di notte.

Why is fosse used in the sentence?

Because after a hypothetical se clause referring to a present unreal situation, Italian uses the imperfect subjunctive. Fosse is the third-person singular imperfect subjunctive of essere (“to be”).

Why is the imperfect subjunctive required instead of the present subjunctive?

Italian distinguishes between real/open and unreal conditions:

• Real/open possibility: se + present indicative
• Unreal (contrary-to-fact) present: se + imperfect subjunctive
  Here the speaker imagines a situation that isn’t true now, so the imperfect subjunctive (fosse) is correct.

Why do we say non avrei instead of avrò?

Avrò is the simple future (“I will have”): it states a certain future event.
Avrei is the present conditional (“I would have”), used as the result of an unreal condition. Since the “if” clause is hypothetical, the main clause must be in the conditional.

Why is avere caldo used instead of essere caldo?

In Italian, sensations like heat or cold are expressed with avere. You literally “have heat” (avere caldo) rather than “are hot.”

What does più leggero mean, and why use più?