Breakdown of Qualsiasi problema avessero, ho sperato che loro fossero felici.
essere
to be
felice
happy
loro
they
avere
to have
il problema
problem
sperare
to hope
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
qualsiasi
any
Questions & Answers about Qualsiasi problema avessero, ho sperato che loro fossero felici.
Why is avessero in the imperfect subjunctive here?
It is triggered by the word Qualsiasi (whatever/any). When you use qualsiasi to mean "whatever [noun]" (Whatever problem...), the verb that follows must be in the subjunctive mood. Because the rest of the sentence takes place in the past, we use the imperfect subjunctive form of avere (avessero) to match the past timeline.
Why do we use fossero (imperfect subjunctive) after ho sperato instead of the present subjunctive?
Verbs of hoping, like sperare, always require the subjunctive. When the main verb is in a past tense like the passato prossimo (ho sperato), the dependent clause needs the imperfect subjunctive (fossero) to show that the hoping and the being happy were happening at the exact same time in the past.
I always forget: is problema masculine or feminine?
It is masculine! Even though it ends in -a, problema is one of those tricky masculine nouns of Greek origin. If they had multiple problems, it would be i problemi.
Why doesn't Qualsiasi change its ending to match problema?
Qualsiasi is an invariable adjective. That means its spelling never changes, regardless of whether the noun it describes is masculine, feminine, singular, or plural.
Is the pronoun loro strictly necessary before fossero?
Not grammatically. In Italian, you can usually drop the subject pronoun, and fossero already tells us the subject is "they." However, adding loro here adds a little bit of emphasis, as if saying "I hoped that they were happy."
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