Breakdown of Bisogna montare le maniglie appena avremo finito di lucidare.
avere
to have
finire
to finish
montare
to assemble
bisognare
to be necessary
di
to (linking a verb to a following infinitive)
appena
as soon as
lucidare
to polish
la maniglia
the handle
bisogna
one must, it is necessary (frozen impersonal of bisognare)
Questions & Answers about Bisogna montare le maniglie appena avremo finito di lucidare.
Why use avremo finito (a future tense) here when the English translation says "have finished"?
In Italian, when a sentence refers to a future event, the action that must be completed first takes the Futuro Anteriore (Future Perfect). Since the polishing must be completed before mounting the handles, Italian strictly requires avremo finito (literally "we will have finished") after temporal words like appena. English is less strict and often uses the present perfect here.
Could I just use the regular future tense here, like appena finiremo?
You will sometimes hear native speakers do this in casual speech, but it is grammatically less precise. The Futuro Anteriore is the correct standard way to emphasize the chronological order: it shows that the first action (polishing) is 100% completed before the next step (mounting) can begin.
Why is there a di between finito and lucidare?
The verb finire (to finish) requires the preposition di whenever it is followed directly by an infinitive verb. To say "to finish doing something," you must always use finire di + [infinitive verb].
Since "we" are doing the polishing, why isn't bisogna conjugated to match "we"?
Bisogna is an impersonal verb that means "it is necessary" or "one must." It only exists in the third-person singular and is always followed by an infinitive (in this case, montare). Even though the second half of the sentence specifies who is doing the work (avremo, "we"), the first half just expresses a general necessity.
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