L’autista del pullman parla come se conoscesse già la destinazione.

The apostrophe appears because the article is shortened before a vowel. So l’autista means the driver.

Also, autista can be either masculine or feminine. On its own, l’autista does not tell you the driver’s gender, because both masculine and feminine use l’ before a vowel. You usually know from context, or from an adjective later in the sentence, for example:

• L’autista è bravo = the driver is male
• L’autista è brava = the driver is female

Del is a contraction of di + il, so it means of the.

So:

• l’autista del pullman = the driver of the bus / coach

This is a very common Italian structure. English often uses the bus driver, but Italian often prefers the driver of the bus type structures.

Pullman usually means a coach or bus, especially a long-distance or tour bus. In everyday Italian, it can overlap with autobus, but autobus is the more general word for bus, especially city buses.

So here pullman suggests a bus/coach, not necessarily a small local vehicle.

A useful extra point: pullman does not normally change in the plural:

• il pullman
• i pullman

Parla is the third person singular present of parlare.

It matches the subject l’autista:

• io parlo = I speak
• tu parli = you speak
• lui/lei parla = he/she speaks

So l’autista del pullman parla means the bus driver speaks.

Come se means as if.

It introduces a comparison between reality and appearance. In this sentence, the idea is that the driver is speaking in a way that gives the impression that he or she already knows the destination.

This is a very common expression in Italian:

• Parla come se fosse il capo = He speaks as if he were the boss
• Mi guarda come se non mi conoscesse = He looks at me as if he didn’t know me

Because after come se, Italian normally uses the subjunctive, not the indicative.

Conoscesse is the imperfect subjunctive of conoscere.

So:

• parla = present indicative
• conoscesse = imperfect subjunctive

This pattern is very common after come se:

• Parla come se sapesse tutto = He talks as if he knew everything
• Ride come se fosse felice = She laughs as if she were happy

For an English speaker, this can feel strange because the main verb is present, but Italian still uses the imperfect subjunctive after come se.

It is the imperfect subjunctive: congiuntivo imperfetto.

It comes from the verb conoscere. A few forms are:

• che io conoscessi
• che tu conoscessi
• che lui/lei conoscesse
• che noi conoscessimo

In this sentence, you do not need che, because the structure is come se + subjunctive.

Not necessarily.

The structure come se + subjunctive usually describes an appearance, impression, or hypothetical situation. So the sentence means that the driver speaks as if he or she already knew the destination.

That does not automatically mean it is true. The speaker is describing how it sounds or seems.

This is a good question, because English often uses know for both ideas.

In Italian:

• sapere = to know a fact, information, how to do something
• conoscere = to know, be familiar with, be acquainted with

Here conoscere la destinazione suggests being familiar with the destination. Italian could also express the idea with sapere, but usually in a different structure, for example:

• come se sapesse qual è la destinazione = as if he knew what the destination is

So conoscesse la destinazione works, but sapere would normally need a clause such as qual è la destinazione.

Già means already.

Its position is flexible, but in this sentence conoscesse già la destinazione is a very natural order. It means already knew the destination.

You could also say:

• come se già conoscesse la destinazione

That is also correct, but it shifts the emphasis slightly. The original version is neutral and very natural.

Italian uses definite articles more often than English does.

Here la destinazione means the destination, referring to a specific destination understood from the context. Even if English might sometimes say just destination in a more general way, Italian normally keeps the article here.

So:

• conoscere la destinazione = to know the destination

This sounds natural and complete in Italian.