Breakdown of Credo che il regista vada dietro il sipario.
andare
to go / to be fine / to work out
dietro
behind
credere
to believe
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
il regista
the director (film, theater)
il sipario
the curtain
Questions & Answers about Credo che il regista vada dietro il sipario.
Why is the verb vada instead of va?
Vada is the present subjunctive of the irregular verb andare (to go). We use the subjunctive here because the sentence starts with credo che (I believe that), which expresses an opinion.
Since vada is irregular, how do we know it means "he goes" and not "I go"?
In the present subjunctive, the first three singular forms (I, you, he/she) are identical. For andare, they are all vada. We rely on the subject, il regista, being explicitly mentioned in the sentence to know exactly who is going.
Why does regista take the masculine article il when it ends in "-a"?
Can I say dietro al sipario instead of dietro il sipario?
Yes, you can. The preposition dietro (behind) can be followed directly by a definite article, like il, or it can be combined with the preposition a to make al. Both are perfectly correct and common in Italian.
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