Breakdown of Anche essendo goloso, lui sfugge alla tentazione senza mangiare.
essere
to be
lui
he
anche
also, too
mangiare
to eat
senza
without
alla
to the / at the (feminine singular)
la tentazione
the temptation
goloso
gluttonous
sfuggire
to escape (slip away, elude)
Questions & Answers about Anche essendo goloso, lui sfugge alla tentazione senza mangiare.
Why do we use essendo here instead of conjugating the verb, like anche se è goloso?
This is an implicit concessive clause. You can use anche (even) followed by a present gerund like essendo (being) to mean "even though" or "despite." It is a slightly more formal, concise alternative to anche se è goloso (even if he is gluttonous). For this structure to work, the subject of the gerund must be the same as the subject of the main clause (in this case, lui).
Why is it sfugge alla tentazione and not just sfugge la tentazione?
In Italian, the verb sfuggire (to escape, to elude) is intransitive and takes the preposition a. Unlike in English where you "escape something" directly, in Italian you use the indirect object. Because tentazione is feminine singular, the preposition a combines with the definite article la to become alla.
Why is the infinitive mangiare used after senza instead of a gerund like the English "without eating"?
In Italian, prepositions like senza (without), per (in order to), and di (of) are always followed by the infinitive form of the verb, never the gerund. So the English "without eating" translates to senza mangiare (literally "without to eat").
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