Learn Italian: Il loro figlio adottivo avrebbe preferito restare qui. - Their adoptive son would have preferred to stay here.

Il loro figlio adottivo avrebbe preferito restare qui.

Their adoptive son would have preferred to stay here.

Breakdown of Il loro figlio adottivo avrebbe preferito restare qui.

Questions & Answers about Il loro figlio adottivo avrebbe preferito restare qui.

Why do we use the article il in il loro figlio? I thought singular family members drop the definite article.

You are right that singular family members usually drop the article with possessives (like mio figlio). However, loro is an absolute exception: it always keeps the definite article, no matter the noun. So it must be il loro figlio.

Would it still keep the article if we used a different possessive, like mio, since it says figlio adottivo?

Yes! Another exception to the family member rule is when the noun is modified by an adjective or a suffix. Because figlio is modified by adottivo, you must use the article regardless of the possessive (e.g., il mio figlio adottivo). In this sentence, we actually have two different reasons to keep the article: the possessive loro and the adjective adottivo.

Why is it avrebbe preferito instead of aveva preferito?

Avrebbe preferito is the past conditional, meaning "would have preferred", which expresses a hypothetical or unfulfilled desire in the past. Aveva preferito is the past perfect, which would mean "had preferred", stating a factual event that happened before another past event.

Why is there no preposition like di or a between preferito and restare?