Quando il tassista ha visto la strada chiusa, ha preso una deviazione senza che io dicessi nulla.

I

Breakdown of Quando il tassista ha visto la strada chiusa, ha preso una deviazione senza che io dicessi nulla.

• prendere: to take
• vedere: to see
• lui: he

Questions & Answers about Quando il tassista ha visto la strada chiusa, ha preso una deviazione senza che io dicessi nulla.

Why is ha visto used here instead of an imperfect form like vedeva?

Ha visto is passato prossimo, and it presents the seeing as a completed event: the taxi driver saw that the road was closed.

That fits the sentence well because the driver’s action sequence is:

1. he saw the road was closed,
2. then he took a detour.

If you used vedeva, it would sound more like an ongoing background situation, such as he was seeing / he could see, which is not the main idea here.

So:

• ha visto = a finished event
• vedeva = an ongoing or habitual background action

In this sentence, the completed event is the natural choice.

Why is chiusa feminine?

Because chiusa agrees with la strada, which is feminine singular.

• strada = road, feminine singular
• chiuso / chiusa / chiusi / chiuse = closed, with agreement

So:

• la strada chiusa = the closed road / the road closed off

This is normal adjective agreement in Italian.

What exactly does la strada chiusa mean here? Is it just the closed road?