Breakdown of Ha giurato, ma non credo a quel bugiardo.
ma
but
non
not
quello
that
avere
to have
a
to / at
credere
to believe
giurare
to swear
il bugiardo
the liar
Questions & Answers about Ha giurato, ma non credo a quel bugiardo.
Why is there an a before quel bugiardo when the English translation just says "I don't believe that liar"?
Why does the sentence use quel instead of quello?
When used as an adjective before a noun, quello changes its form to match the definite article that the noun would take. Because the masculine singular noun bugiardo takes the article il (il bugiardo), the adjective form becomes quel. You generally only use the full word quello before a noun if it starts with "Z" or "S + consonant" (where you would use lo), or when it stands alone as a pronoun.
This lesson is about using the past conditional for a "future in the past" (like "He swore he would change"). Why isn't there a past conditional here?
The past conditional is only needed when a past action introduces a reported action that happened later (for example, ha giurato che lo avrebbe fatto meaning "he swore that he would do it"). In this sentence, ha giurato stands alone as a simple statement. Because it doesn't introduce a secondary future action, no conditional is needed.
Why does giurare take avere (ha giurato) as its helper verb here, even though there's no direct object?
Verbs of communicating, speaking, and declaring (like giurare, parlare, and rispondere) take avere in the passato prossimo. They use this helper verb regardless of whether a direct object is actually written out in the sentence.
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