Breakdown of Spero di poter migliorare la mia autostima.
mio
my
potere
can, to be able to
sperare
to hope
di
to (linking a verb to a following infinitive)
migliorare
to improve
l'autostima
the self-esteem
Questions & Answers about Spero di poter migliorare la mia autostima.
Why does this sentence use di poter instead of che io possa?
The verb sperare (to hope) normally requires the subjunctive mood when you are hoping for someone else to do something, like spero che tu possa. However, when the subject is the same for both actions (I hope that I can), Italian drops the che plus subjunctive and uses di plus the infinitive verb instead.
Why are there two infinitive verbs in a row here, poter and migliorare?
Potere is a modal verb meaning to be able to. Modal verbs are always followed directly by another verb in the infinitive. Since the grammar of this sentence forces potere into the infinitive to become poter, the second verb migliorare simply attaches right after it as usual.
Why is the word poter missing its final -e?
Why do we need the article la before mia autostima?
In Italian, possessive adjectives like mia or tuo almost always require a definite article like il or la in front of them. The only major exception is for singular family members like mio padre, but for a regular noun like autostima, the la is absolutely required.
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