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Il soggetto si era voltato improvvisamente.

Il soggetto si era voltato improvvisamente.
The subject had turned around suddenly.
From Lesson 164:The pluperfect tense (avevo fatto)·Italian

Breakdown of Il soggetto si era voltato improvvisamente.

essere
to be
improvvisamente
suddenly
voltarsi
to turn around
il soggetto
the subject

Questions & Answers about Il soggetto si era voltato improvvisamente.

Why do we use era here instead of aveva for "had"?
Voltarsi (to turn around) is a reflexive verb, as shown by the si at the beginning. In Italian compound tenses like the trapassato prossimo (pluperfect), all reflexive verbs must use essere (to be) as their helping verb. So, instead of using avere, Italian uses the imperfect form of essere (era).
Where exactly do I put the reflexive pronoun si in the trapassato prossimo?
The reflexive pronoun (like mi, ti, or si) always goes immediately before the helping verb. Here, si goes right before era, giving us si era voltato.
Does the ending of voltato change depending on who the subject is?
Yes! Because the helping verb is essere, the past participle (voltato) must agree in gender and number with the subject. Since il soggetto is masculine singular, it ends in -o. If the subject were feminine, like la donna (the woman), it would be si era voltata.
How is the word improvvisamente formed?
Improvvisamente is an adverb formed from the feminine adjective improvvisa (sudden) plus the suffix -mente. This suffix works exactly like "-ly" in English, turning "sudden" into "suddenly".

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