Breakdown of Il ritratto era nitido perché avevo usato il treppiede.
essere
to be
avere
to have
perché
because, why
usare
to use
Questions & Answers about Il ritratto era nitido perché avevo usato il treppiede.
Why do we use avevo usato instead of just ho usato?
Avevo usato is the Trapassato Prossimo (the "had done" tense, or pluperfect). You use it when talking about a past action that happened before another past event or state. Here, setting up the tripod happened before the portrait was observed to be sharp. It is made by combining the imperfetto of the helper verb (avevo) with the past participle (usato).
Why is "was" translated as era and not è stato?
Era is the imperfetto (imperfect) tense of essere (to be). We use the imperfetto here because describing the portrait as sharp is setting a scene or describing a continuous state in the past, rather than a single, finished action.
Treppiede ends in -e. How can I tell if it is masculine or feminine?
You can tell it is masculine and singular because it uses the definite article il. While nouns ending in -e can be either gender, it helps to know that this word literally combines tre (three) and piede (foot). Since piede is masculine, treppiede is too!
Why does the adjective nitido end in -o here?