Breakdown of Stavo ascoltando le sue parole prima di confessare i miei sentimenti.
la parola
the word
di
of, from
mio
my
suo
his/her/Your
ascoltare
to listen / to listen to
stare
to stay, to feel, to be
prima
before, earlier
confessare
to confess
il sentimento
feeling
Questions & Answers about Stavo ascoltando le sue parole prima di confessare i miei sentimenti.
Why is it le sue parole if the translation says "his words" and not "her words"?
In Italian, possessive adjectives like sue agree in gender and number with the thing being owned, not the owner. Since parole (words) is feminine plural, you must use le sue, regardless of whether they are "his" words or "her" words. You would only know it means "his" from the wider context of the conversation.
How do we form the "I was listening" part (stavo ascoltando)?
This is the past continuous tense, used to describe ongoing actions in the past. You build it by taking the imperfect tense of stare (here, stavo for "I was") and adding the gerund of the main verb. For -are verbs like ascoltare, the gerund always ends in -ando.
Why do we use the infinitive confessare after prima di?
There are no combined pronouns in this sentence! How would I rewrite it to use glieli from our current lesson?
Great catch! If you wanted to replace "my feelings" and say "before confessing them to him", you would combine gli (to him) and li (them, the feelings) to make glieli. When attaching a pronoun to an infinitive verb like confessare, you drop the final -e and stick the pronoun right on the end, making it one big word: prima di confessarglieli.
Learn Stavo ascoltando le sue parole prima di confessare i miei sentimenti and more in Italian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free