Breakdown of Se la pellicola fosse stata noiosa, nessuno l'avrebbe guardata.
essere
to be
noioso
boring
avere
to have
guardare
to look at / to watch
se
if
la
her/it (direct object)
nessuno
nobody
la pellicola
the film
Questions & Answers about Se la pellicola fosse stata noiosa, nessuno l'avrebbe guardata.
Why do we use fosse stata in the first part and avrebbe guardata in the second?
This sentence uses the Third Conditional to talk about an impossible past situation. The condition clause requires se + the pluperfect subjunctive (fosse stata - had been). The result clause requires the past conditional (avrebbe guardata - would have watched). It describes a past that never happened: the film wasn't boring, so people did watch it.
Why is the auxiliary verb fosse (from essere) used to form the pluperfect subjunctive here?
The subject of the second half is nessuno (nobody). Why does the past participle end in a feminine -a (guardata)?
The -a ending isn't agreeing with the subject nessuno. It is agreeing with the direct object pronoun l' (standing for la pellicola). Whenever you use a direct object pronoun like lo, la, li, or le before a compound tense, the past participle must agree with that pronoun's gender and number.
Is pellicola commonly used instead of film?
Yes, while film is the most common word for a movie, pellicola (which literally means the physical film strip or reel) is a very popular synonym, especially in reviews or journalistic writing. Because it is a feminine noun, it dictates the feminine endings throughout the sentence (stata, noiosa, guardata).
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