Breakdown of Aggiunto il ciondolo, dovevamo fissare il gancio.
dovere
must
aggiungere
to add
fissare
to secure
il ciondolo
the pendant
il gancio
the clasp
Questions & Answers about Aggiunto il ciondolo, dovevamo fissare il gancio.
Why does the sentence start with Aggiunto il ciondolo instead of something like Dopo aver aggiunto?
This is the Absolute Past Participle. It is a concise way to express 'After something was done' or 'Having done something'. You could also say Dopo aver aggiunto il ciondolo, but this absolute construction is very common in Italian and sounds a bit more elegant.
Does aggiunto have to agree with the noun il ciondolo?
What is the infinitive of aggiunto and is it irregular?
It is the irregular past participle of the verb aggiungere (to add). As a handy tip, most Italian verbs ending in -giungere follow this same pattern and end in -giunto for their past participle, such as raggiungere (to reach) becoming raggiunto.
Why use the imperfect dovevamo instead of the passato prossimo (abbiamo dovuto)?
The imperfect (dovevamo) is used here to describe an ongoing state or obligation at that moment in the past ('we needed to', or 'it was our task'). If we used the passato prossimo (abbiamo dovuto fissare il gancio), it would emphasize that the action of attaching it was successfully taken and completely finished as a single event.
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