Learn Italian: C'è molto fumo: qualcosa di brutto sta per succedere. - There is a lot of smoke: something bad is about to happen.

C'è molto fumo: qualcosa di brutto sta per succedere.

There is a lot of smoke: something bad is about to happen.

Breakdown of C'è molto fumo: qualcosa di brutto sta per succedere.

for / in order to / because of

Questions & Answers about C'è molto fumo: qualcosa di brutto sta per succedere.

How does sta per succedere translate to 'is about to happen'?

This sentence uses the structure stare per plus an infinitive verb to talk about an action that is going to happen right away. Here, we use sta because the subject is qualcosa (something), followed by per and the infinitive verb succedere (to happen).

Why is there a di in qualcosa di brutto?

In English, we put the adjective right after the word 'something' to say 'something bad'. In Italian, whenever you describe an indefinite word like qualcosa (something) or niente (nothing) with an adjective, you must link them using the preposition di.

Since qualcosa ends in -a, shouldn't the adjective be brutta instead of brutto?

It might look like a feminine word, but the adjective following qualcosa di must always be in the default masculine singular form. That is why it is qualcosa di brutto and never qualcosa di brutta.

Why doesn't molto change its ending here?

In this sentence, molto is an adjective meaning 'a lot of', so it must agree with the noun it describes. It describes fumo (smoke), which is a masculine singular noun. Because smoke is uncountable, both the noun and molto stay in the masculine singular form.