Learn Italian: Quando inizierà l'imbarco, le mie sorelle saranno tornate dal viaggio. - When boarding begins, my sisters will have returned from the trip.

Quando inizierà l'imbarco, le mie sorelle saranno tornate dal viaggio.

When boarding begins, my sisters will have returned from the trip.

Breakdown of Quando inizierà l'imbarco, le mie sorelle saranno tornate dal viaggio.

Questions & Answers about Quando inizierà l'imbarco, le mie sorelle saranno tornate dal viaggio.

Why does this sentence use saranno instead of avranno for the future perfect?

The verb tornare (to return) is a verb of motion. Just like in the passato prossimo (present perfect), verbs of motion, state of being, or change take essere as their auxiliary (helping) verb. So, the future perfect is formed with the future tense of essere (saranno) plus the past participle.

Why does the past participle tornate end in an "e"?

Because it uses essere as the helping verb! When forming compound tenses with essere, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject. The subject here is le mie sorelle (feminine plural), so the past participle changes to match: tornate.

The English translation says "When boarding begins", but isn't inizierà the future tense ("will begin")?

Yes, exactly! This is a major difference between Italian and English. In Italian, if the action following quando (when) happens in the future, you must use the future tense. English typically uses the present tense for future events in this structure.

How does the word dal break down here?