Breakdown of Spero che lei gli dia il copione per suggerire la battuta.
lei
she
per
for / in order to / because of
dare
to give
sperare
to hope
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
il copione
the script
la battuta
the line (of dialogue)
suggerire
to prompt / to suggest
Questions & Answers about Spero che lei gli dia il copione per suggerire la battuta.
Why do we use dia instead of the normal present tense dà?
Because the sentence starts with Spero che (I hope that), which expresses a hope or wish. This requires the next verb to be in the subjunctive mood. dia is the present subjunctive form of the highly irregular verb dare (to give).
Are all the singular forms of dare the same in the present subjunctive?
Where does the indirect object pronoun gli go when the verb is in the subjunctive?
Just like in the regular present tense, object pronouns like gli (to him) go immediately before the conjugated verb. The subjunctive mood doesn't change this rule, so it remains gli dia.
Why is per used before suggerire?
In Italian, when you want to express the purpose of an action (meaning "in order to"), you use per followed by the infinitive of the verb. So per suggerire translates as "in order to prompt" or simply "to prompt."
I learned that suggerire means to suggest. Why does it mean to prompt here?
Words can shift meaning based on their context! In the world of theater and acting (indicated by copione, meaning script, and battuta, meaning line), suggerire means to feed an actor their lines when they forget them, which we call "prompting" in English.
Learn Spero che lei gli dia il copione per suggerire la battuta and more in Italian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free