Breakdown of Spero che il contadino porti qualcosa da piantare.
portare
to bring, to carry
qualcosa
something
sperare
to hope
il contadino
the farmer
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
da
to (purpose/necessity after a noun)
piantare
to plant
Questions & Answers about Spero che il contadino porti qualcosa da piantare.
Why does this sentence use porti instead of the normal present tense porta?
The verb sperare (to hope) expresses a desire, which triggers the subjunctive mood in the second part of the sentence. Because we have Spero che (I hope that), the following verb must be in the subjunctive: porti.
Wait, doesn't porti usually mean 'you bring'? Why is it used for the farmer?
In the normal present tense (indicative), you are right: tu porti means 'you bring'. But this sentence is in the present subjunctive. For regular -are verbs like portare, the present subjunctive endings for io, tu, and lui/lei are all exactly the same: they all end in -i. So here, porti means 'he brings'.
Since the io, tu, and lui/lei forms are all identical in the subjunctive, how do we avoid confusion?
By including the subject! Here, il contadino makes it clear who is doing the bringing. If you do not have a specific noun as the subject, Italians often add the subject pronoun (io, tu, lui, lei) right after che to make it perfectly clear, such as Spero che lui porti qualcosa (I hope he brings something).
Why do we use da in qualcosa da piantare instead of just the infinitive or a different preposition?
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