Breakdown of Ho pulito l'ingranaggio senza che nessuno me lo chiedesse.
avere
to have
chiedere
to ask
pulire
to clean
nessuno
nobody
me lo
it to me
senza che
without (+ clause)
l'ingranaggio
the gear (m)
Questions & Answers about Ho pulito l'ingranaggio senza che nessuno me lo chiedesse.
Why is chiedesse in the imperfect subjunctive here?
The conjunction senza che (without) always requires the subjunctive mood. Because the main verb is in the past (ho pulito), Italian sequence of tenses requires the imperfect subjunctive (chiedesse) to show that the "asking" belongs to the same past time frame.
Why does the sentence use nessuno (nobody) to mean "anyone"?
What does the lo in me lo refer to?
Here, the direct object pronoun lo acts as a neuter pronoun representing the entire action of "cleaning the gear". While English drops this and just says "asking me to", Italian requires the pronoun to complete the verb: literally, "without anyone asking it to me". (Note that the indirect object mi changes to me when placed before lo).
Could we shorten this to an implicit clause using the infinitive, like senza chiedermelo?
Not in this case. You can only use the implicit form (senza + infinitive) when the subject of both clauses is the same person. Here, the subject of the first clause is "I" (ho pulito), but the subject of the second clause is "anyone" (nessuno). Because the subjects are different, you are forced to use the explicit form senza che + subjunctive.
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