Breakdown of Speravamo che il clima fosse diventato più mite.
più
more / anymore (with 'non')
diventare
to become
il clima
the climate
sperare
to hope
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
mite
mild
Questions & Answers about Speravamo che il clima fosse diventato più mite.
Why do we need the pluperfect subjunctive (fosse diventato) here instead of just the imperfect subjunctive (diventasse)?
The main verb Speravamo (We hoped) triggers the subjunctive because it expresses an emotion or hope. Since the hoping happened in the past, and the climate becoming milder happened before that hope, we must use the pluperfect (past perfect) subjunctive. If we had used the imperfect subjunctive (diventasse), it would mean we hoped the weather was becoming milder at that exact same time.
Why is the auxiliary verb fosse (from essere) used instead of avesse (from avere)?
The verb diventare (to become) describes a change of state. In Italian compound tenses, verbs that express movement, state of being, or a change of state take essere as their helping (auxiliary) verb. Because it's the pluperfect subjunctive, we use the imperfect subjunctive of essere, which is fosse for the third-person singular.
Wait, clima ends in "-a". Why does the past participle end in "-o" (diventato) instead of "-a" (diventata)?
Even though it ends in "-a", clima is actually a masculine noun (il clima). When a compound tense uses essere, the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number. Therefore, it takes the masculine singular ending to become diventato. Watch out for nouns ending in "-ma" (like problema, programma, clima)—many of them are Greek in origin and are masculine!
How does the comparative più mite (milder) work compared to English?
In English, we often add "-er" to short adjectives to compare things (mild becomes milder). Italian doesn't have an equivalent suffix. Instead, you always put più (more) in front of the adjective, making it literally translate to "more mild". Also, because mite ends in -e, it has the same form for both masculine and feminine singular nouns.
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