Breakdown of Una banda pericolosa ha rubato i soldi.
una
a / an (feminine)
pericoloso
dangerous
i soldi
the money
rubare
to steal
la banda
the gang
Questions & Answers about Una banda pericolosa ha rubato i soldi.
Why is it ha rubato instead of hanno rubato, since a gang has multiple people?
Banda is a collective noun. In Italian, human collective nouns like banda, gente, or famiglia require strict singular agreement. Even though a gang consists of many people, grammatically it is one single unit, so we use the third-person singular verb ha.
Does pericolosa stay feminine even if the gang is entirely made of men?
Yes. The adjective pericolosa must agree with the grammatical gender of the noun it modifies, which is the feminine singular una banda. The actual gender of the people in the group never overrides the grammatical gender of the collective noun.
Why doesn't the past participle rubato end in -a to match the feminine subject banda?
Because the helping verb here is avere (ha). In the passato prossimo (present perfect) tense, the past participle only changes its ending to match the subject when the helping verb is essere. With avere, the participle rubato keeps its default -o ending.
I always forget: why is 'money' translated as the plural i soldi?
In English, 'money' is a singular, uncountable concept. In Italian, soldi is plural and countable (literally 'coins'). You will almost always use it with the plural article i, and any adjectives describing it must also be plural.
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