Breakdown of Avete pensato che io avessi molto entusiasmo?
io
I
avere
to have
molto
a lot of / much
pensare
to think
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
l'entusiasmo
the enthusiasm (m)
Questions & Answers about Avete pensato che io avessi molto entusiasmo?
Why do we use avessi here instead of the regular past tense avevo?
The verb pensare (to think) expresses an opinion, which triggers the subjunctive mood. Because the main verb is in a past tense (avete pensato), we must use the imperfect subjunctive (avessi) rather than the present subjunctive (abbia) to keep the timing in the past.
Why is the pronoun io included before avessi? Usually, Italian drops pronouns.
In the imperfect subjunctive, the first and second person singular forms of avere are identical (io avessi, tu avessi). Including io removes any ambiguity, making it completely clear that 'I' had the enthusiasm, not 'you'.
Is molto acting as an adjective or an adverb here?
Could we use the past perfect subjunctive here instead?
Only if you want to change the timeline. We use the imperfect subjunctive (avessi) because the enthusiasm was happening at the exact same time you were thinking about it. If you wanted to say 'Did you think I had had much enthusiasm?' (meaning the enthusiasm happened before the thinking), you would use the past perfect subjunctive: avessi avuto.
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