Learn Italian: Credevo che nessuno mi dicesse come gestire il mio reddito. - I believed that nobody was telling me how to manage my income.

Credevo che nessuno mi dicesse come gestire il mio reddito.

I believed that nobody was telling me how to manage my income.

Breakdown of Credevo che nessuno mi dicesse come gestire il mio reddito.

Questions & Answers about Credevo che nessuno mi dicesse come gestire il mio reddito.

Why do we use dicesse here instead of the regular imperfect diceva?

The main verb credevo (I believed) expresses an opinion, thought, or uncertainty in the past. This automatically triggers the imperfect subjunctive (dicesse) in the dependent clause, rather than the regular imperfect indicative (diceva).

How is the form dicesse created from the verb dire?

Dire is an irregular, "stem-shortened" verb. To find its imperfect subjunctive stem, you have to look at its older Latin infinitive, dicere. You drop the -ere to get the stem dic-, and then add the regular imperfect subjunctive endings. For a third-person singular subject like nessuno, the ending is -esse, giving us dicesse.

Why isn't there a non in this sentence to go with nessuno?

In Italian, when a negative word like nessuno (nobody) comes before the verb as the subject, you do not use non. You only need a double negative (like non diceva nessuno) if the negative word comes after the verb.

Why is gestire in the infinitive form?