Breakdown of Temo che la balena dorma poco.
poco
little, few, not very
dormire
to sleep
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
temere
to fear
la balena
the whale
Questions & Answers about Temo che la balena dorma poco.
Why do we use dorma instead of the normal present tense dorme?
The verb temere (to fear) expresses an emotion. In Italian, expressing a fear, hope, or worry about a different subject triggers the subjunctive mood. Because of this rule, temo che (I fear that) must be followed by the subjunctive dorma.
Dorma ends in -a, but dormire is an -ire verb. Shouldn't it end in -i?
In the present subjunctive, the vowel endings essentially flip compared to the regular present indicative tense. For both -ere and -ire verbs, the singular endings (for I, you, and he/she/it) are all -a. Since the whale is a third-person singular subject, dormire correctly becomes dorma.
Many -ire verbs add -isc- in the present tense. Why doesn't dorma have it?
Not all -ire verbs use the -isc- infix. While verbs like capire (to understand) become capisca in the subjunctive, dormire is one of the standard -ire verbs that skips this step entirely, going straight to the -a ending.
Since la balena is feminine, why isn't it poca instead of poco?
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