Learn Italian: Temevo che tu creassi un paradosso e modificassi l'epoca. - I feared that you would create a paradox and modify the era.

In English, we often use 'would' to describe a hypothetical action following a past tense. However, in Italian, a main verb expressing emotion or fear like Temevo (I feared) requires the subjunctive. Because the main verb is in the past, the verbs following it must shift into the imperfect subjunctive (creassi, modificassi).

How do you form the imperfect subjunctive for regular verbs like creare and modificare?

You drop the -are ending from the infinitive and add the imperfect subjunctive endings. For the tu form of -are verbs, the ending is -assi, which gives us creassi and modificassi.

Why is the subject pronoun tu included here?

In Italian, subject pronouns are usually dropped, but they are often kept in the subjunctive to avoid confusion. In the imperfect subjunctive, the io and tu forms are completely identical (both end in -ssi). Including tu makes it crystal clear that 'you' are the one creating the paradox, not 'I'.

Why don't we repeat tu before modificassi?