Breakdown of Avesse mosso l'alfiere, il suo contrattacco sarebbe stato brillante.
essere
to be
avere
to have
suo
his/her/Your
muovere
to move (something, set it in motion)
l'alfiere
bishop
il contrattacco
counterattack
brillante
brilliant
Questions & Answers about Avesse mosso l'alfiere, il suo contrattacco sarebbe stato brillante.
Why is there no se (if) at the beginning of the sentence?
In formal or literary Italian, you can drop se in past conditional sentences, just like in English ('Had he moved...' instead of 'If he had moved...'). To do this, you simply start with the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive (avesse mosso instead of se avesse mosso).
Why is the past conditional sarebbe stato used here?
This sentence describes a hypothetical situation in the past that didn't actually happen (a Type 3 conditional). The condition clause uses the pluperfect subjunctive (avesse mosso), so the result clause must use the past conditional (sarebbe stato) to express what 'would have' happened.
How do we know the subject of avesse mosso is 'he' and not 'I'?
In the imperfect subjunctive, the first-person ('I') and second-person ('you') forms are both avessi. The third-person form ('he/she/it' or formal 'you') is avesse. Therefore, avesse mosso can only mean 'had he/she/it moved', whereas 'had I moved' would be avessi mosso.
Does the verb muovere always take avere as its auxiliary?
It takes avere when it is used transitively with a direct object, like the chess piece here (l'alfiere). If the subject is moving their own body, it becomes the reflexive verb muoversi and takes the auxiliary essere, as in si fosse mosso (had he moved).
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