Breakdown of Questa plastica, la possiamo riciclare anche se è rotta.
essere
to be
questa
this (feminine)
rotto
broken
la plastica
plastic
Questions & Answers about Questa plastica, la possiamo riciclare anche se è rotta.
Why do we need the pronoun la before possiamo if we already said Questa plastica at the beginning?
This is a structure called "left dislocation." In everyday Italian, it's very common to move the topic you want to emphasize to the front of the sentence (the left side). When you move a direct object like Questa plastica to the front, you must include a matching pronoun in the main clause to refer back to it. Since plastica is feminine singular, we use la.
Can I attach the la to the end of the verb instead?
Yes! Because this sentence uses a modal verb (potere) followed by an infinitive (riciclare), you have two choices for pronoun placement. You can put it before the conjugated verb (la possiamo riciclare) or attach it to the end of the infinitive by dropping its final -e (possiamo riciclarla). Both are completely correct and natural.
Why does rotta end in -a?
Rotta is the past participle of rompere (to break), acting here as an adjective. It must agree in gender and number with the noun it describes. Even though it is in a separate clause introduced by anche se, it is still describing Questa plastica (feminine singular), so it takes the feminine singular ending -a.
Does anche se always use the indicative mood, like è here?