Breakdown of Avremmo cambiato l'itinerario per prendere il traghetto.
avere
to have
prendere
to take
per
for / in order to / because of
cambiare
to change
il traghetto
the ferry
l'itinerario
the itinerary (m)
Questions & Answers about Avremmo cambiato l'itinerario per prendere il traghetto.
Why does this sentence use avremmo instead of saremmo?
The verb cambiare (to change) takes avere as its auxiliary verb when it acts on a direct object (in this case, l'itinerario). To form the past conditional for an action we would have done, we use the present conditional of avere (avremmo) plus the past participle (cambiato).
Does avremmo cambiato imply that we actually changed the itinerary?
No, it implies the exact opposite. The past conditional here expresses a missed opportunity or an unfulfilled action in the past. We would have changed it, but in reality, we didn't.
Why is it per prendere instead of just prendere?
In Italian, when you want to say "in order to" do something, you use the preposition per followed by an infinitive verb. Here, per prendere translates to "in order to take" or simply "to take".
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