Breakdown of Il truffatore è più astuto di quanto la gente ingenua non creda.
essere
to be
non
not
la gente
the people
più
more / anymore (with 'non')
Questions & Answers about Il truffatore è più astuto di quanto la gente ingenua non creda.
Why is there a non before creda if the English translation does not say 'don't believe'?
This is the 'pleonastic non', an extra word that does not actually make the sentence negative. In Italian, when a comparative of majority or minority (like più astuto) is followed by a conjugated verb (creda), a non is often inserted before that verb. It adds a stylistic emphasis to the contrast, but you could also write the sentence without it and the meaning would stay exactly the same.
Why is the verb creda in the subjunctive mood here?
The phrase di quanto (meaning 'than' before a clause) automatically triggers the subjunctive mood for the following verb. Because the sentence describes a subjective belief or estimation, the present subjunctive creda is the grammatically correct choice here.
Why do we use di quanto for 'than' here, instead of just di or che?
You use di quanto (or di quel che) when the second part of the comparison introduces a whole new clause with a conjugated verb. Since 'than naive people believe' contains the conjugated verb creda, you cannot just use di or che, which are mostly reserved for comparing nouns, pronouns, or adjectives.
The translation says 'naive people' (plural), so why is it la gente ingenua (singular)?