Breakdown of Il sospettato stava spiegando il suo alibi.
suo
his/her/Your
stare
to stay, to feel, to be
spiegare
to explain
il sospettato
the suspect
l'alibi
the alibi (m)
Questions & Answers about Il sospettato stava spiegando il suo alibi.
Why do we use stava spiegando instead of just spiegava?
While both can translate to "was explaining", the past progressive form stava spiegando strongly emphasizes that the action was currently in progress at a specific moment in the past. You form it by using the imperfetto of stare (here, stava) followed by the gerund of the main verb (spiegando).
Does the word sospettato come from a verb?
Yes! It comes from the past participle of the verb sospettare (to suspect). Italian frequently turns past participles into nouns. So il sospettato literally means "the suspected one" or "the suspect".
Why is there an il before suo alibi? Doesn't suo already mean "his"?
Yes, but in Italian, possessive adjectives like suo (his or her) usually require a definite article like il or la before them. A literal translation would be "the his alibi". The main exception is with singular family members (like mio fratello), which drop the article.
The word alibi ends in an "i". Does that mean it is plural?
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