Learn Italian: Speravo che il tempo fosse rimasto secco. - I hoped that the weather had remained dry.

Speravo che il tempo fosse rimasto secco.

I hoped that the weather had remained dry.

Breakdown of Speravo che il tempo fosse rimasto secco.

il tempo

the time, the weather

sperare

to hope

che

that (conjunction introducing a clause)

rimanere

to remain, to stay behind

Questions & Answers about Speravo che il tempo fosse rimasto secco.

Why do we use the pluperfect subjunctive (fosse rimasto) in this sentence instead of a normal past tense?

The verb speravo (I was hoping) expresses a hope, which triggers the subjunctive mood. Because the hoping happened in the past, and the weather staying dry happened leading up to that past moment, we need the pluperfect subjunctive to show this 'past of the past' relationship.

Why is the helper verb fosse used here rather than avesse?

The action in the second half of the sentence is rimanere (to remain). Because it is a verb describing a state of being or lack of change, it always takes essere as its helper verb in compound tenses. Fosse is the imperfect subjunctive form of essere for a third-person singular subject.

Why does rimasto end in -o? Would it ever change?

Yes, it changes to match the subject! Whenever you use essere as a helper verb, the past participle has to agree in gender and number with what it describes. Here, il tempo is masculine and singular, so it takes the masculine singular ending -o.

I thought il tempo meant time. How do we know it means weather here?

The word il tempo translates to both time and weather in Italian. You always have to look at the context clues. Since the sentence talks about it staying secco (dry), it naturally refers to the weather.