Breakdown of Ebbero grandi ricchezze, ma i loro nemici furono crudeli.
essere
to be
grande
big
ma
but
avere
to have
loro
their
il nemico
the enemy
la ricchezza
wealth
crudele
cruel
Questions & Answers about Ebbero grandi ricchezze, ma i loro nemici furono crudeli.
Why use ebbero and furono here instead of hanno avuto and sono stati?
Ebbero (they had) and furono (they were) are the passato remoto (remote past) forms of avere and essere. This tense is used for historical events or things that happened a long time ago and are completely finished, with no ongoing connection to the present. You will encounter it most often in history books, fairy tales, and formal literature.
The singular of nemici is nemico. Why doesn't it add an "h" to keep the hard "k" sound in the plural?
Why do we need the article i in i loro nemici?
In Italian, possessive adjectives almost always require a definite article before them. While there is a famous exception for singular close family members (where you drop the article, like in mio padre), loro is a special exception to that exception: it always takes the article, no matter what noun follows it.
Why does the adjective grandi come before the noun ricchezze?
While most adjectives in Italian follow the noun, common adjectives measuring size, age, or value (like grande, piccolo, vecchio) often come before the noun to emphasize their meaning or give a more poetic feel. Notice that grande ends in -e in the singular, so its plural is always grandi, even for feminine nouns like ricchezze.
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