Breakdown of Ha aggiunto che doveva aggiustare la macchina quel giorno.
la macchina
car
quello
that
il giorno
day
dovere
must
aggiungere
to add
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
aggiustare
to fix
Questions & Answers about Ha aggiunto che doveva aggiustare la macchina quel giorno.
Why use quel giorno instead of oggi?
This is the indirect speech shift. If he were speaking directly, he would have said, 'I have to fix the car today' (oggi). But because we are reporting his words in the past (Ha aggiunto che...), the time reference shifts. 'Today' (oggi) becomes 'that day' (quel giorno).
Why is doveva in the imperfect tense here?
When turning direct speech into past indirect speech, a present tense verb shifts to the imperfect. His original words were likely 'I have to fix' (devo aggiustare). Reported in the past, the present tense devo shifts to the imperfect doveva.
Doveva can mean 'I had to', 'he had to', or 'she had to'. How do we know who is fixing the car?
Could I use riparare instead of aggiustare?
Yes, absolutely. Both aggiustare and riparare mean 'to fix' or 'to repair' and work perfectly for cars or broken appliances. Aggiustare is just very common in everyday conversational Italian.
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