Breakdown of Che cosa facevi per indagare sul sospettato?
che
what
la cosa
thing
per
for / in order to / because of
fare
to do / to make
Questions & Answers about Che cosa facevi per indagare sul sospettato?
Since this lesson is about the past progressive, why does this sentence use facevi instead of stavi facendo?
In Italian, the regular imperfect tense (imperfetto), like facevi, is often used to translate 'were doing'. While you can use stavi facendo to heavily emphasize that you were in the exact middle of the action, facevi is a very natural and common way to express ongoing past actions without needing the extra verb.
Why is there a per before indagare?
When an English infinitive like 'to investigate' actually means 'in order to investigate' (showing the purpose or goal of an action), Italian requires per followed by the infinitive verb.
Why is it sul sospettato rather than just il sospettato?
Is sospettato a verb or a noun here?