Breakdown of Ha detto che aspettava la batteria dal giorno precedente.
il giorno
day
aspettare
to wait / to wait for
dire
to say, to tell
da
since, for (duration)
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
la batteria
the battery
precedente
previous (preceding)
Questions & Answers about Ha detto che aspettava la batteria dal giorno precedente.
Why does the sentence use il giorno precedente instead of ieri?
This is the rule of indirect speech when reporting in the past. If the original speaker said, 'I have been waiting since yesterday' (ieri), from the perspective of the person reporting it later, that 'yesterday' is no longer today's yesterday. It becomes 'the previous day.' So, ieri shifts to il giorno precedente.
Could I say il giorno prima instead of il giorno precedente?
Yes! Il giorno prima (the day before) is very common and completely interchangeable with il giorno precedente in this sentence. Both are correct ways to shift ieri into past indirect speech.
Why is the imperfect tense (aspettava) used instead of the past perfect (aveva aspettato) for 'had been waiting'?
Think about what the person originally said: 'I am waiting for the battery since yesterday.' Italian uses the present tense plus da for an action that started in the past and is still ongoing. When you turn that present tense into past indirect speech, it shifts back one step into the imperfect tense: aspettava.
Why did da ieri turn into dal giorno precedente with the word dal?
When the time shifts from ieri (yesterday) to il giorno precedente (the previous day), you now have the definite article il in the phrase. The preposition da (since) must combine with il to form the articulated preposition dal.
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