Learn Italian: Penso che la siccità distruggerà il raccolto. - I think that the drought will destroy the harvest.

Penso che la siccità distruggerà il raccolto.

I think that the drought will destroy the harvest.

Breakdown of Penso che la siccità distruggerà il raccolto.

pensare

to think

che

that (conjunction introducing a clause)

Questions & Answers about Penso che la siccità distruggerà il raccolto.

Why is distruggerà in the future tense instead of the subjunctive? Doesn't penso che require the subjunctive?

You are right that penso che normally triggers the subjunctive. However, Italian doesn't have a 'future subjunctive' tense. When you want to talk about an action that will happen in the future compared to a main verb that requires the subjunctive (like penso), you simply use the regular future indicative tense. So, 'I think that it will destroy' correctly becomes penso che distruggerà.

Could I use the present subjunctive here anyway?

If you used the present subjunctive (Penso che la siccità distrugga il raccolto), the meaning would change to a present action: 'I think the drought is destroying the harvest.' Because we are talking about an event that hasn't happened yet ('will destroy'), the future indicative is required.

Why does siccità have an accent mark on the last letter?

Words ending in an accented vowel, like siccità (drought) or città (city), place the spoken stress heavily on that final syllable. Additionally, these nouns do not change their spelling in the plural. 'The droughts' would simply be le siccità.

What is the infinitive of distruggerà, and how is the future stem formed?