Breakdown of La ricerca aiuterebbe molte persone se l'università la finanziasse.
la persona
the person
l'università
the university (f)
molto
a lot of / much
aiutare
to help
Questions & Answers about La ricerca aiuterebbe molte persone se l'università la finanziasse.
Why does the conditional verb (aiuterebbe) come before the se clause in this sentence?
Just like in English, you can reverse the order of the two clauses. You can put the result first (La ricerca aiuterebbe...) and the condition second (...se l'università la finanziasse). The golden rule is that the imperfect subjunctive always sticks to se, no matter which half of the sentence comes first.
Could I use the conditional tense for both halves of the sentence?
No, and this is a common trap! In English we sometimes use a simple past tense after 'if', but in Italian, a hypothetical se clause must use the imperfect subjunctive (finanziasse). The present conditional (aiuterebbe) is strictly reserved for the result clause. Never put a conditional verb directly after se.
Why does the verb finanziasse end in -asse?
The subject doing the financing is l'università, which is a third-person singular noun (acting like 'lei' or 'it'). To conjugate regular -are verbs like finanziare in the imperfect subjunctive for this subject, you drop the infinitive ending and add -asse.
What is the function of la in la finanziasse?
It is a direct object pronoun meaning 'it', referring back to la ricerca (research), which is a feminine singular noun. In Italian, these pronouns must be placed immediately before the conjugated verb, and this rule applies in the subjunctive mood just as it does normally.