Breakdown of Nel reality ci si arrabbia, basta che il pubblico guardi.
guardare
to look at / to watch
arrabbiarsi
to get angry
nel
in the (in + il) / while / upon (doing something)
il pubblico
the audience
ci si
one (impersonal with reflexive verbs)
basta che
provided that / as long as
il reality
reality show
Questions & Answers about Nel reality ci si arrabbia, basta che il pubblico guardi.
Why is guardi used here instead of the regular present tense guarda?
guardi is the present subjunctive form of guardare. It is triggered by the conversational conjunction basta che (as long as / provided that). Because this phrase establishes a condition that must be met for the main action to happen, Italian requires the subjunctive mood.
Why does the sentence use ci si arrabbia to mean "people get angry"? Where does the ci come from?
This is the impersonal form of the reflexive verb arrabbiarsi (to get angry). To say "one gets angry" or "people get angry", you need the impersonal pronoun si. However, since the verb itself already has a reflexive si, you would end up with si si arrabbia. To avoid this awkward repetition, Italian grammar dictates that the first si changes to ci, resulting in ci si arrabbia.
Is the English loanword reality always masculine in Italian?
Yes! It takes the masculine singular article il, which combines with the preposition in to make nel. Also, notice how Italian frequently truncates English compound nouns: a "reality show" is simply called un reality.
Since "the audience" is made up of many people, why is the verb guardi in the singular?
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