Learn Italian: Dopo la sconfitta, l'allenatore consola la squadra. - After the defeat, the coach consoles the team.

Dopo la sconfitta, l'allenatore consola la squadra.

After the defeat, the coach consoles the team.

Breakdown of Dopo la sconfitta, l'allenatore consola la squadra.

Questions & Answers about Dopo la sconfitta, l'allenatore consola la squadra.

How would we rewrite this to say 'The coach is consoling it [the team]' using the progressive tense from this lesson?

To say 'The coach is consoling it' (referring to la squadra), we use the direct object pronoun la and the progressive form sta consolando. You can place the clitic pronoun either before the conjugated verb or attached to the end of the gerund. So, both L'allenatore la sta consolando and L'allenatore sta consolandola are perfectly correct.

The word sconfitta (defeat) looks like a past participle. Is it related to a verb?

Yes, it comes from the verb sconfiggere (to defeat). Its irregular past participle is sconfitto, which is used here to form the feminine noun la sconfitta (the defeat). This is a very common way nouns are formed in Italian.

Why is it just dopo la sconfitta and not dopo della sconfitta?

When dopo (after) is followed by a noun, it acts directly as a preposition, so you just use the article and the noun (dopo la sconfitta). You only need to add the preposition di when dopo is followed by a personal pronoun, such as dopo di me (after me) or dopo di loro (after them).

Does l'allenatore translate to both 'coach' and 'trainer'?