Breakdown of Se fossi ricco, farei beneficenza.
essere
to be
fare
to do / to make
se
if
ricco
rich
la beneficenza
the charity
Questions & Answers about Se fossi ricco, farei beneficenza.
Why do we use fossi and farei instead of present tense verbs here?
This sentence is a second conditional, which describes an imaginary or unlikely situation. In Italian, when you say "If I were...", you use se (if) followed by the imperfect subjunctive (fossi). The result part of the sentence uses the present conditional (farei to mean "I would do").
Since fossi can mean "I were" or "you were", how do we know it means "I" in this sentence?
The verb in the second half of the sentence, farei (I would do), gives it away. While it is grammatically possible to say "If you were rich, I would give to charity," context makes it clear the speaker is talking about themselves in both halves. If you needed to clarify that you meant "you", you could say Se tu fossi ricco...
If a woman is saying this sentence, does anything change?
Why does the Italian say farei beneficenza instead of using a verb for "to give"?
In English, we say "give to charity", but Italian expresses this idea as an activity you do. The standard phrase is fare beneficenza (literally "to do charity"). In this sentence, fare becomes farei (I would do) to match the conditional "would give".
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