Learn Italian: Spero che sia facile digerire questo cibo. - I hope that it is easy to digest this food.

Spero che sia facile digerire questo cibo.

I hope that it is easy to digest this food.

Breakdown of Spero che sia facile digerire questo cibo.

Questions & Answers about Spero che sia facile digerire questo cibo.

Why do we use sia here instead of è?

Sia is the present subjunctive form of essere (to be). We must use the subjunctive here because the sentence starts with spero che (I hope that). Verbs expressing hope, wishes, or doubt trigger the subjunctive mood in the connected clause.

What is the subject of sia in this sentence?

The subject is actually the entire phrase digerire questo cibo (to digest this food). You can think of the literal translation as "I hope that digesting this food is easy." Because it is a general, impersonal concept, we use the third-person singular form sia.

Why isn't there a preposition here, like facile da digerire?

If the food were the subject, you would use da, as in: Spero che questo cibo sia facile da digerire (I hope this food is easy to digest). However, in our sentence, the action itself is the subject. When an adjective like facile describes an infinitive verb that acts as the subject, you attach the infinitive directly without any preposition.

Could I change the word order to Spero che digerire questo cibo sia facile?

Yes, you absolutely can! Both word orders are completely correct and natural. The original sentence simply places sia facile earlier to put slightly more emphasis on the hope that the process will be "easy".