Breakdown of Siamo tornati a rievocare il passato, senza commuoverci.
essere
to be
tornare
to return
senza
without
il passato
the past
a
(linking a verb to a following infinitive)
rievocare
to recall, to evoke
commuoversi
to get emotional, to be moved
Questions & Answers about Siamo tornati a rievocare il passato, senza commuoverci.
How does the structure tornare a change the meaning of the verb rievocare here?
The phrase tornare a followed by an infinitive is a common structure used to show that an action is being repeated or resumed. While it literally means to return to doing something, it translates naturally as doing something again. Here, tornare a rievocare means we went back to recalling or started recalling again.
Why do we use siamo instead of abbiamo as the helping verb, even though rievocare takes avere?
In this structure, the helping verb (auxiliary) for the compound tense is dictated by the first verb, tornare. Because tornare is a verb of motion that requires essere, we use siamo and make the past participle agree with the subject (tornati). The verb that follows in the infinitive does not affect the auxiliary here.
Why is the verb after senza left in the infinitive instead of being conjugated?
In Italian, the preposition senza (without) is followed directly by an infinitive when the subject is the same in both halves of the sentence. Since we are both the people recalling the past and the people not getting emotional, we simply use senza + infinitive.
What happens to the ending of the verb in commuoverci?
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