Breakdown of Tra l'altro, dobbiamo ancora sviluppare l'intreccio del romanzo.
di
of, from
dovere
must
il romanzo
novel
ancora
yet / still
tra l'altro
among other things
sviluppare
to develop
l'intreccio
plot
Questions & Answers about Tra l'altro, dobbiamo ancora sviluppare l'intreccio del romanzo.
How exactly is tra l'altro used here as a conversational connector?
Tra l'altro literally means "among other things", but in conversation, it functions like "by the way", "incidentally", or "besides". It is used to smoothly add an extra point to the current topic or slightly branch off. When used this way to shift the discourse, it usually sits at the very beginning of the sentence and is followed by a comma.
Why use l'intreccio for "the plot" instead of la trama?
Both words mean "plot", but they have a slightly different nuance. La trama is the general storyline or summary of events. L'intreccio (from the verb intrecciare, meaning to weave or intertwine) refers more specifically to the way the events are woven together—the narrative structure, the twists, and how the subplots interact.
Does romanzo mean this is a romance story?
Not necessarily! Romanzo is a classic false friend. It is the standard Italian word for any "novel" (a long work of fiction), regardless of the genre. If you specifically want to talk about a romance novel, you would call it a romanzo rosa.
Could we put ancora at the very end of the sentence instead of right after dobbiamo?
You could, but placing ancora directly after the conjugated helping verb (here, the modal dobbiamo) is by far the most natural word order in Italian. Pushing it all the way to the end of a long sentence like this sounds clunky to a native speaker.
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