Breakdown of Temo che non ce la faremo se il ghiacciaio si scioglierà.
non
not
se
if
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
farcela
to manage / to succeed (idiomatic)
temere
to fear
il ghiacciaio
the glacier
sciogliersi
to melt (ice, snow)
Questions & Answers about Temo che non ce la faremo se il ghiacciaio si scioglierà.
Why do we use the future tense (faremo) after Temo che instead of the subjunctive?
Verbs of emotion like temere (to fear) usually trigger the subjunctive. However, when the action in the dependent clause will happen in the future relative to the main verb, Italian drops the subjunctive and uses the future indicative instead. Because "we won't make it" is a future event, we use the future tense faremo.
Why is the future tense used in se il ghiacciaio si scioglierà when the English translation says "if the glacier melts"?
In English, we typically use the present tense after "if" to describe a future condition. Italian is more literal: since the melting is a future possibility that leads to a future outcome (faremo), both halves of the sentence must use the future tense.
Where do the words ce la come from in non ce la faremo?
They belong to the idiomatic verb farcela, which means "to make it", "to manage", or "to succeed". The particles ce and la don't translate literally to "us" or "it" here; they are just baked into the expression. To use it, you keep ce la and only conjugate the fare part, which becomes faremo (we will do).
Why does scioglierà have the reflexive pronoun si in front of it?
The verb here is sciogliersi. You use the regular verb sciogliere when the subject is melting something else (like "I melt the butter"). You add the reflexive pronoun to make it sciogliersi when the subject itself is doing the melting, just like the glacier does in this sentence.
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