Breakdown of Pur essendo amici, la convivenza è difficile salvo che ci sia rispetto.
essere
to be
l'amico
the friend (m)
difficile
difficult
c'è
there is / there are
il rispetto
the respect
pur
even while / despite
la convivenza
the cohabitation
salvo che
unless (except that)
Questions & Answers about Pur essendo amici, la convivenza è difficile salvo che ci sia rispetto.
Why does this sentence use the subjunctive ci sia instead of the indicative c'è?
The phrase salvo che ("unless" or "except if") is an exceptive conjunction. These conjunctions introduce a condition or an exception to the main clause, and they always trigger the subjunctive mood. Therefore, we use ci sia, the present subjunctive of esserci (to be there).
Could I use a condizione che instead of salvo che here?
Not without changing the adjective in the main clause! While both conjunctions trigger the subjunctive, salvo che means "unless", whereas a condizione che means "provided that". If you swapped them directly, you'd be saying cohabitation is difficult provided that there is respect. You would need to adjust the sentence to something like: la convivenza è possibile a condizione che ci sia rispetto.
What does the word pur do in front of essendo?
Placing pur before a gerund creates a concessive clause, meaning "even though" or "although". Pur essendo amici means "even though we are friends." Without pur, essendo amici would just mean "being friends" or "since we are friends," which would incorrectly make the friendship the cause of the difficulty rather than an unexpected contrast to it.
The implied subject of essendo is "we" (from amici), but the subject of the main clause is la convivenza. Is it okay that they don't match?
Usually, a gerund must share the same subject as the main clause to avoid confusion. However, Italian allows an exception (called an absolute gerund) when the subject of the gerund is completely obvious from the context. Here, the plural noun amici makes it perfectly clear that the gerund refers to the people living together, so native speakers accept this mismatch.
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