Breakdown of Abbiamo comprato un materasso nuovo un mese fa.
un
a / an (masculine)
nuovo
new
il mese
the month
avere
to have
comprare
to buy
fa
ago
il materasso
the mattress
Questions & Answers about Abbiamo comprato un materasso nuovo un mese fa.
Why is nuovo placed after materasso here, and what would happen if we put it before?
In Italian, the position of certain adjectives changes their meaning. Placed after the noun (un materasso nuovo), it emphasizes that the mattress itself is physically brand new. If placed before the noun (un nuovo materasso), it would just mean a mattress that is new to you as a replacement, even if it was bought second-hand.
This lesson is about adverbial adjectives. Is nuovo acting as an adverb here?
No, in this sentence nuovo is a standard adjective describing the masculine singular noun materasso. While this lesson covers adjectives that act as invariable adverbs describing verbs (like forte in parlare forte), nuovo here describes a noun and strictly follows standard gender and number agreement rules.
How does the word fa work to mean "ago" in this sentence?
Why do we use the passato prossimo (the compound past tense) like abbiamo comprato with un mese fa?
Time expressions with fa pinpoint a specific, completed, and closed event in the past. Therefore, you must use a completed past tense like the passato prossimo (for recent events) or the passato remoto (for distant ones), rather than the imperfetto, which is used for ongoing past habits or background descriptions.
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