Breakdown of Devi tenere la stampella finché non finisce la riabilitazione.
finire
to finish
dovere
must
tenere
to keep / to hold
la stampella
crutch
finché non
until
la riabilitazione
rehabilitation
Questions & Answers about Devi tenere la stampella finché non finisce la riabilitazione.
Why does the Italian sentence use "finché non finisce" when the English translation says "until it finishes" without a "not"?
This is the core difference between finché and finché non. By itself, finché means "as long as" (two actions happening at the same time). When you add non, it means "until" (an action stops when the next one happens). The non here doesn't actually make the verb negative; it just signals that you must keep the crutch until the moment the rehabilitation finishes.
Why is the subject la riabilitazione at the very end of the sentence, after the verb finisce?
In Italian, it is very common and natural to put the subject after the verb when introducing a new piece of information, or when talking about an event occurring, arriving, or ending. Saying finché non la riabilitazione finisce is grammatically okay but sounds clunky to a native speaker compared to finché non finisce la riabilitazione.
Why are we using the present tense finisce instead of the future tense, since the rehabilitation finishes in the future?
Italian frequently uses the present tense to talk about future events as long as the context makes the timeframe clear. You could absolutely use the future tense here (finché non finirà), but the present tense finisce is perfectly natural and much more common in everyday spoken Italian.
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