Breakdown of L'autista privato aspetterebbe davanti alla porta.
la porta
door
aspettare
to wait / to wait for
alla
to the / at the (feminine singular)
davanti
in front / ahead
Questions & Answers about L'autista privato aspetterebbe davanti alla porta.
Why does aspettare change to aspetterebbe with an "e" instead of an "a"?
For regular verbs ending in -are, the a changes to an e before adding the conditional endings. So, the stem aspettar- becomes aspetter-, and then you add the 'he/she/it' ending -ebbe. You will see this exact same vowel change in the future tense!
How can I tell this means "would wait" and not "will wait"?
The ending -ebbe is the key. The future tense for 'he/she/it will wait' is aspetterà. The conditional tense for 'would wait' uses the same stem but adds -ebbe for the 'he/she/it' form.
Why is the adjective privato masculine if the noun autista ends in "-a"?
Why do we need alla after davanti? Couldn't we just say davanti la porta?