Word
La bomba era sul punto di esplodere.
Meaning
The bomb was about to explode.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of La bomba era sul punto di esplodere.
essere
to be
su
on, about
di
to (linking a verb to a following infinitive)
il punto
the point
Questions & Answers about La bomba era sul punto di esplodere.
Since we already know stare per, what is the difference between era sul punto di esplodere and stava per esplodere?
Why is era in the imperfetto tense instead of the passato prossimo (è stata)?
The phrase essere sul punto di describes a condition or an ongoing state at a specific moment in the past. We use the imperfetto (era) to set the scene and build tension. The passato prossimo is for completed, closed events, which conflicts with the suspenseful 'about to' nature of this phrase.
Is the preposition di always required before the infinitive here?
Yes, the preposition di is mandatory. The grammatical construction is a fixed phrase: essere sul punto di + infinitive verb (like esplodere). You cannot drop it.
If the bomb actually did explode, would esplodere take avere or essere in the passato prossimo?