Learn Italian: Essendo questa mancanza veramente inaspettata, dobbiamo indagare. - This lack being truly unexpected, we must investigate.

Essendo questa mancanza veramente inaspettata, dobbiamo indagare.

This lack being truly unexpected, we must investigate.

Breakdown of Essendo questa mancanza veramente inaspettata, dobbiamo indagare.

Questions & Answers about Essendo questa mancanza veramente inaspettata, dobbiamo indagare.

The main verb is dobbiamo (we must), but the gerund's subject is questa mancanza. Is it common to mix subjects like this?

Yes, this is exactly what makes it an absolute gerund! Normally, an Italian gerund must share the same subject as the main clause. However, you can give the gerund its own completely different explicit subject to explain the cause, background, or timing of the main action.

Why is the subject questa mancanza placed after the gerund essendo?

In an absolute gerund construction, the explicit subject is almost always placed right after the gerund. If you try to use the English word order and say questa mancanza essendo, it will sound very unnatural to an Italian speaker.

How would you rewrite the first half of this sentence without using a gerund?

Because the gerund here shows the cause of the investigation, you could replace it with a standard causal conjunction like poiché, siccome, or dato che. For example, you could say: Siccome questa mancanza è veramente inaspettata, dobbiamo indagare.

Why does inaspettata end in -a?

It is an adjective modifying the explicit subject of the gerund clause, mancanza (lack), which is a feminine singular noun. Even inside this special gerund structure, standard noun-adjective agreement still applies.