Breakdown of Se la conclusione fosse stata banale, non ne avremmo discusso fino all'alba.
essere
to be
non
not
avere
to have
se
if
ne
of it / of them / some (pronoun)
fino
until, up to (fino a)
discutere
to discuss
l'alba
dawn
banale
banal / predictable
la conclusione
conclusion
Questions & Answers about Se la conclusione fosse stata banale, non ne avremmo discusso fino all'alba.
Why is the auxiliary verb fosse used in fosse stata instead of avesse?
The verb here is essere (to be), because the sentence says "had been". In Italian compound tenses, essere always uses itself as the auxiliary verb. To form the pluperfect subjunctive for the "if" clause, we use the imperfect subjunctive of essere (fosse) plus its own past participle (stato).
Why does the past participle in fosse stata end in -a?
What role does the pronoun ne play in non ne avremmo discusso?
The verb discutere (to discuss) generally uses the preposition di when you are talking about something (discutere di qualcosa). The pronoun ne replaces di + [the topic]. In this sentence, ne replaces della conclusione (about the conclusion), so ne avremmo discusso means "we would have discussed about it".
Since ne refers back to the feminine noun la conclusione, shouldn't discusso change to discussa?
No, it correctly stays discusso. You only make the past participle agree with ne when ne represents a quantity (like "I ate three of them"). Here, ne means "about it", which acts as an indirect object. Because the auxiliary is avere and there is no direct object pronoun involved, the participle discusso keeps its default -o ending.
Why do we say fino all'alba instead of just fino l'alba?
When fino (until) is followed by a noun, it must be paired with the preposition a. When you combine a with the definite article l' for alba, it forms the combined preposition all'.
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