Learn Italian: Avrei preso la coincidenza, ma l'aereo è arrivato in ritardo. - I would have caught the connection, but the plane arrived late.

Avrei preso la coincidenza, ma l'aereo è arrivato in ritardo.

I would have caught the connection, but the plane arrived late.

Breakdown of Avrei preso la coincidenza, ma l'aereo è arrivato in ritardo.

in / made of (material)

Questions & Answers about Avrei preso la coincidenza, ma l'aereo è arrivato in ritardo.

How do we form the past conditional in avrei preso, and what does it express here?

It expresses a missed opportunity in the past—something you intended to do, but didn't happen. You form the past conditional just like the passato prossimo, but instead of the present tense auxiliary, you use the present conditional auxiliary. Here, we use avrei (I would have) plus the past participle of prendere, which is the irregular preso.

Is coincidenza a false friend? Does it mean "coincidence"?

It can mean "coincidence", but when talking about travel (like flights or trains), la coincidenza means "the connection". In this sentence, the speaker is talking about missing their connecting flight.

Why does the second half of the sentence use è arrivato instead of ha arrivato?

Arrivare (to arrive) takes the auxiliary essere in compound tenses, not avere. This is a great reminder that verbs of movement or verbs describing a change of state almost always use essere. Because l'aereo is masculine singular, the past participle ends in -o (arrivato).

Why do we say in ritardo for "late"? Can I just use tardi?