Breakdown of Ho capito che il mio compagno aveva un legame speciale con lei.
lei
she
un
a / an (masculine)
avere
to have
mio
my
Questions & Answers about Ho capito che il mio compagno aveva un legame speciale con lei.
Why is aveva in the imperfetto (imperfect) tense here?
This is an example of indirect speech in the past. The main verb Ho capito is in a past tense. If the original realization was in the present tense ("my classmate has a special bond" = ha), that verb must "backshift" into the past when you report it later. The present tense ha shifts to the imperfetto aveva.
In English, we can just say "I understood my classmate had..." without the word "that". Can we drop che in Italian?
No, you cannot. In English, dropping "that" is very common, but in Italian, the conjunction che is mandatory to connect the main clause (Ho capito) with the indirect statement (il mio compagno aveva...).
Does compagno mean "classmate" or "romantic partner"?
Why do we use the article il in il mio compagno? Don't we drop the article with family members?