Question 1

Why use siccome here instead of perché for 'since' or 'because'?

Accepted Answer

Siccome is used when you want to start a sentence with the reason. If you use perché, it usually has to go in the middle of the sentence. For example, you could flip this to say: L'inverno era lunghissimo perché l'era glaciale era freddissima.

Question 2

In l'era glaciale era freddissima, are both words era the exact same thing?

Accepted Answer

No, they are two completely different words that just happen to look identical! The first era is a feminine noun meaning 'era' or 'age' (as in the ice age). The second era is the imperfect tense of the verb essere (to be), meaning 'was'.

Question 3

Why is the imperfect tense (era) used here instead of the passato prossimo (like è stata)?

Accepted Answer

The imperfect tense is used for descriptions in the past, especially for ongoing states or background information where there isn't a specific start and end time mentioned. Since we are describing the general conditions of the ice age, the imperfect era is the right choice.

Question 4

How do the endings on freddissima and lunghissimo work?

Accepted Answer

This is the absolute superlative ending, which acts like adding 'extremely' or 'very' in English. It replaces the final vowel of the adjective. So, fredda (cold) becomes freddissima (extremely cold), and lungo (long) becomes lunghissimo (extremely long). Notice that they still perfectly match the gender and number of the nouns they describe!

Siccome l'era glaciale era freddissima, l'inverno era lunghissimo.

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