Breakdown of Io comprerei un elicottero privato.
io
I
un
a / an (masculine)
comprare
to buy
l'elicottero
the helicopter (m)
Questions & Answers about Io comprerei un elicottero privato.
How do you form the conditional comprerei from the verb comprare?
To form the present conditional of regular -are verbs like comprare, you first change the a in the infinitive to an e to get the stem (comprer-). Then, for the io (I) form, you add the ending -ei. This gives us comprerei (I would buy).
Do I really need to say io at the beginning of this sentence?
You do not have to! Italian usually drops the subject pronoun because the verb ending (the -ei in comprerei) already tells us who is doing the action. Including io here just adds emphasis, similar to saying "As for me, I would buy a private helicopter."
Why is it elicottero privato instead of privato elicottero?
In Italian, descriptive adjectives like privato (private) almost always come after the noun they describe, which in this case is elicottero. Also, notice that privato ends in -o to agree with the masculine singular noun.
As a quick refresher, why does elicottero use the article un instead of uno or un'?