Breakdown of Speravo di fare il taglio di cui parlavamo.
di
of, from
parlare
to speak / to talk
fare
to do / to make
sperare
to hope
cui
whom / which
il taglio
the haircut
Questions & Answers about Speravo di fare il taglio di cui parlavamo.
Why use the imperfect speravo here if I am at the hairdresser right now asking for a haircut?
This is the mitigating imperfect (imperfetto attenuativo). Italians often use the imperfect tense of verbs like sperare, volere, or cercare to sound more polite, hesitant, or less demanding in the present. It translates perfectly to the English softening phrase 'I was hoping' rather than a direct 'I hope' or 'I want'.
Why use fare (to do/make) instead of a verb for 'getting' a cut?
Why is there a di between speravo and fare?
The verb sperare requires the preposition di when it is followed directly by an infinitive verb. If you want to say 'to hope to do something', it must always be built as sperare di fare qualcosa.
Why is it di cui instead of just che?
The verb parlare requires the preposition di when talking about something (parlare di). When you link clauses using a relative pronoun that replaces the object of a preposition, you use the preposition + cui. In English we often put the preposition at the end ('the cut we were talking about'), but Italian strictly says 'the cut about which we were talking' (il taglio di cui parlavamo).
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