Breakdown of La sua paura dei ragni crea un panico terribile.
un
a / an (masculine)
la paura
fear
di
of, from
suo
his/her/Your
creare
to create
il ragno
the spider
terribile
terrible
il panico
panic
Questions & Answers about La sua paura dei ragni crea un panico terribile.
Why isn't the subjunctive used here if fear is an emotion?
While expressions of emotion trigger the subjunctive, they only do so when introducing a dependent clause with che (like ho paura che...). In this sentence, paura is just a noun acting as the subject, and there is no che clause. Therefore, the verb crea simply takes the standard indicative tense.
The English translation says "his fear", but isn't sua feminine?
Yes, sua is feminine, but remember that Italian possessive adjectives agree with the gender of the noun being owned, not the owner. Since paura is feminine, it must be la sua paura. Out of context, this phrase could mean his fear, her fear, or even your (formal) fear.
Why does it say dei ragni instead of just di ragni?
In English, we drop the article when talking about a general category, like spiders as a whole. In Italian, you almost always need the definite article for broad concepts. The preposition di (of) combines with the plural masculine article i to form the articulated preposition dei.
Could we say un terribile panico instead of un panico terribile?
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