Breakdown of È probabile che l'indiscrezione sia trapelata oggi.
essere
to be
oggi
today
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
probabile
probable
l'indiscrezione
the leak / the rumor
trapelare
to leak / to leak out
Questions & Answers about È probabile che l'indiscrezione sia trapelata oggi.
The current lesson is about the reportative conditional. Why does this sentence use the subjunctive (sia trapelata) instead?
The impersonal expression è probabile che (it is likely that) expresses probability and always triggers the subjunctive mood. If you wanted to express unconfirmed news using the reportative conditional instead, you would drop the opening phrase and simply say: L'indiscrezione sarebbe trapelata oggi (The leak allegedly came out today).
Why does sia trapelata use a form of essere as its helping verb?
The verb trapelare (to leak / to seep out) is an intransitive verb describing a change of state. Like many verbs of movement or state in Italian, it requires essere as its auxiliary verb in compound tenses. Because it uses essere, the past participle must agree with the feminine singular subject (l'indiscrezione), giving us trapelata.
Why is it sia trapelata (past subjunctive) instead of trapeli (present subjunctive)?
The main clause, È probabile, is in the present tense. However, the action of the leak coming out already happened earlier today. To show that the action in the dependent clause happened before the main clause, we use the past subjunctive (congiuntivo passato).
The English translation uses the word leak, but the Italian uses indiscrezione. Are they exact equivalents?
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