Breakdown of Pensavo che il sommelier avesse consigliato un vino eccellente.
un
a / an (masculine)
avere
to have
il vino
the wine
pensare
to think
consigliare
to recommend
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
eccellente
excellent
il sommelier
the sommelier
Questions & Answers about Pensavo che il sommelier avesse consigliato un vino eccellente.
How would I rewrite this sentence using this lesson's cleft structure to emphasize that it was an excellent wine the sommelier recommended?
Why is avesse consigliato (past perfect subjunctive) used here instead of the imperfect subjunctive (consigliasse)?
This is due to the sequence of tenses. The main verb pensavo is in the past, and the recommendation happened before you had the thought. To express a prior action in a past subjunctive clause, you must use the past perfect subjunctive (il trapassato congiuntivo). If the recommendation were happening at the exact same time as your thought, you would use the imperfect subjunctive (consigliasse).
Just as a quick refresher, why is a subjunctive tense required here in the first place?
The verb pensare (to think) expresses an opinion, thought, or subjective reality. When it is followed by che and introduces a new clause with a different subject (changing from I to il sommelier), it automatically triggers the subjunctive mood in Italian.
Since sommelier is a foreign word starting with 's', why does it use the article il instead of lo?
The article lo is only used for masculine words starting with 's' followed by a consonant (an impure 's', like lo studente). Since the 's' in sommelier is followed by a vowel ('o'), it takes the standard article il. Like most foreign loanwords in Italian, it is also invariable, meaning the plural is simply i sommelier.
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