Breakdown of Ha deciso all'ultimo minuto che non sarebbe partito.
essere
to be
non
not
avere
to have
partire
to leave
a
to / at
il minuto
minute
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
decidere
to decide
ultimo
last (final)
Questions & Answers about Ha deciso all'ultimo minuto che non sarebbe partito.
Why do we use the past conditional (sarebbe partito) here instead of the present conditional?
In Italian, when the main verb is in the past (ha deciso) and you want to talk about an action that was going to happen after that past moment, you must use the past conditional. This is called the 'future in the past.' English just uses 'would' plus the verb, but Italian requires the past compound tense (sarebbe partito).
Why is the helper verb sarebbe instead of avrebbe?
The verb partire (to leave) is an intransitive verb of movement, so it requires essere as its helper (auxiliary) verb in all compound tenses. To form the past conditional here, you combine the present conditional of essere (sarebbe) with the past participle (partito).
If a woman had made the decision, would the ending of partito change?
Why does the phrase 'at the last minute' use the preposition a (all')?
All' is the combined form of the preposition a and the definite article l'. Italian uses a for many specific points in time, and all'ultimo minuto is a fixed expression that maps perfectly to the English phrase.
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