Breakdown of Se sapevo che era invivibile, non restavo.
essere
to be
non
not
restare
to stay, to remain
sapere
to know
Questions & Answers about Se sapevo che era invivibile, non restavo.
Why does the Italian sentence use the imperfect tense (sapevo, restavo) when the English translation says 'had known' and 'wouldn't have stayed'?
In everyday spoken Italian, it is very common to replace the complex unreal past condition (pluperfect subjunctive plus past conditional) with the imperfect indicative in both halves of the sentence. In formal written Italian, this would be Se avessi saputo che era invivibile, non sarei restato. Using the imperfect makes it much easier to say on the fly!
Why is era also in the imperfect here?
The verb era describes the ongoing state of the place being unlivable in the past. This is the standard use of the imperfect tense for background descriptions, so it is just behaving normally, independent of the hypothetical 'if' structure around it.
How is the word invivibile formed?
Does restavo change if the speaker is female?
No, because it is conjugated in the imperfect indicative, which only changes based on the grammatical person (I, you, he/she, etc.), not gender. If you used the formal past conditional (non sarei restato or non sarei restata), you would have to match the gender because it uses the auxiliary verb essere. This is another reason the spoken imperfect is so convenient!