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A quella bancarella avevo molto da guardare.

A quella bancarella avevo molto da guardare.
At that stall I had a lot to look at.
From Lesson 159:Preposition da with infinitives (da fare, da bere)·Italian

Questions & Answers about A quella bancarella avevo molto da guardare.

Why do we use da guardare instead of just a guardare or di guardare?
In Italian, when you want to express the idea of 'something to do' or 'a lot to do,' you use the preposition da followed by the infinitive verb. Here, molto da guardare means 'a lot to look at.' You will see this pattern very often after words like molto, niente, or qualcosa.
The English translation says 'to look at,' but where is the 'at' in the Italian sentence?
The Italian verb guardare already means 'to look at.' You don't need an extra preposition after it. So, da guardare covers the whole meaning of 'to look at.' Adding a preposition like a after it would be incorrect in Italian.
Why is it avevo (imperfect tense) instead of ho avuto (passato prossimo)?
Avevo is used here because you are describing an ongoing state or situation in the past, which is exactly what the imperfect tense is for. You are setting the scene of what it was like at the stall, rather than talking about a single, completed event.
Why is it quella bancarella and not quel bancarella?
Bancarella (stall) is a feminine singular noun. The word for 'that' must match its gender and number. Since bancarella starts with a single consonant, we use the feminine singular form quella.

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