Breakdown of Penso che il nuovo concime aiuti più dell'acqua.
nuovo
new
l'acqua
the water
aiutare
to help
più
more / anymore (with 'non')
Questions & Answers about Penso che il nuovo concime aiuti più dell'acqua.
Why do we use aiuti instead of aiuta here?
We use aiuti because it is the present subjunctive form of aiutare (to help). In Italian, verbs that express personal opinions or thoughts, like pensare in the phrase Penso che (I think that), require the subjunctive mood in the second part of the sentence.
Since aiuti is the subjunctive form, how do I know who is helping?
For regular -are verbs, the present subjunctive endings for I, you, and he/she/it are exactly the same: they all end in -i. Here, the subject is il nuovo concime (it), so it is the third-person singular form. If the subject weren't obvious from the context, we would include a subject pronoun to clarify.
Why does 'more than water' translate to più dell'acqua instead of just più di acqua?
When comparing nouns in Italian using 'more than', we use the formula più di. However, Italian usually requires definite articles before nouns, even in general statements. So, di combines with the article l' (for l'acqua) to form the combined preposition dell'.
Is there a trick to knowing if words ending in -e like concime are masculine or feminine?