Word
Non credo che il cliente abbia pagato la fattura.
Meaning
I do not believe that the client has paid the invoice.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Non credo che il cliente abbia pagato la fattura.
non
not
avere
to have
pagare
to pay
credere
to believe
Questions & Answers about Non credo che il cliente abbia pagato la fattura.
Why do we use the subjunctive abbia pagato instead of the normal past tense ha pagato?
The main verb credo (I believe) expresses doubt or personal opinion. In Italian, verbs of thinking, believing, and doubting trigger the subjunctive mood in the following che clause.
Why is this the past subjunctive (abbia pagato) rather than the present subjunctive (paghi)?
The past subjunctive is used because the action of paying happened before the action of believing. You are expressing a present doubt (non credo) about a past event (abbia pagato). If you used paghi, it would mean you doubt the client is paying right now.
How is the past subjunctive formed in this sentence?
It is built just like the normal past tense (passato prossimo), but using the present subjunctive form of the helper verb. Since pagare takes avere, we use the he/she/it subjunctive form of avere, which is abbia, and add the past participle pagato.
The word cliente ends in -e. How do we know its gender?