Breakdown of Temevo che il gelo fosse arrivato in città.
in
in / made of (material)
la città
the city
arrivare
to arrive
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
Questions & Answers about Temevo che il gelo fosse arrivato in città.
Why do we use the pluperfect subjunctive (fosse arrivato) here instead of a normal past tense?
The main verb, temevo (I feared), expresses an emotion. Verbs of emotion, doubt, or opinion trigger the subjunctive mood in the following che clause. Since the fear was in the past and the frost's arrival happened before that fear, we need the pluperfect subjunctive (trapassato congiuntivo).
Why is the helping verb fosse (from essere) instead of avesse (from avere)?
The verb arrivare (to arrive) is a verb of motion. In Italian, verbs of motion, state of being, and change of state take essere as their auxiliary verb in all compound tenses. So, we combine the imperfect subjunctive of essere (fosse) with the past participle (arrivato).
Since arrivare uses essere, do we need to worry about the ending of arrivato?
Yes! Whenever a compound tense uses essere as the helping verb, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject. Here, the subject is il gelo (masculine singular), so the participle ends in -o (arrivato). If the subject were la neve (the snow, feminine), it would be fosse arrivata.
Could I use the perfect subjunctive (sia arrivato) if the frost was still in the city?