Breakdown of Credevo che tu non facessi niente per aumentare il tuo reddito.
tu
you (singular)
non
not
tuo
your
per
for / in order to / because of
fare
to do / to make
niente
nothing
credere
to believe
aumentare
to increase
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
il reddito
the income
Questions & Answers about Credevo che tu non facessi niente per aumentare il tuo reddito.
Why is the verb facessi and what is its stem?
Facessi is the imperfect subjunctive of fare for the tu form. Although fare is a short verb, its imperfect subjunctive uses its older, longer stem: fac-. You just add the regular endings to this stem, making it facessi.
Why do we need the imperfect subjunctive here instead of the present subjunctive?
The main verb, Credevo (I believed), is in a past tense and triggers the subjunctive. Because the belief happened in the past, the second verb must also shift to the past. The imperfect subjunctive (facessi) shows that your action was happening at the same time as the belief.
Why is the word tu used here when Italian usually drops subject pronouns?
In the imperfect subjunctive, the io and tu forms are identical. Both are facessi. Without tu, the sentence could mean either "that I was doing nothing" or "that you were doing nothing". The tu is added to make the subject perfectly clear.
Why does the sentence use non and niente together?
Why is per used before aumentare?
When an infinitive verb is used to express a goal or purpose, meaning "in order to", Italian uses per followed by the infinitive. Here, per aumentare translates to "in order to increase".
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