Breakdown of I nemici hanno tramato una congiura per distruggere le fondamenta del castello.
una
a / an (feminine)
il castello
the castle
di
of, from
per
for / in order to / because of
distruggere
to destroy
il nemico
the enemy
il fondamento
the foundation, principle
la congiura
the conspiracy
tramare
to plot
Questions & Answers about I nemici hanno tramato una congiura per distruggere le fondamenta del castello.
Why is it le fondamenta instead of i fondamenti?
The singular masculine noun il fondamento has two distinct plurals (making it a nome sovrabbondante). You use the feminine plural le fondamenta when talking about the literal, physical foundations of a structure, like this castle. The regular masculine plural i fondamenti is reserved for abstract concepts, like the "fundamentals" or "foundations" of a science, theory, or religion.
Is tramare una congiura a common expression for "plotting a conspiracy"?
Yes, it is a perfect collocation. Tramare means "to plot" or "to scheme." At the B2 level, another great verb to learn for this context is ordire (literally "to warp" or weave in a loom), making ordire una congiura (to hatch/weave a conspiracy) a very common and slightly more elevated alternative you will see in historical texts or news.
Why is the plural of nemico spelled nemici (with a soft 'c') instead of nemichi?
Plurals of words ending in -co can be tricky. The general rule is that if the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable (ne-MI-co), the plural takes the hard -chi ending (like il fuoco -> i fuochi). However, nemico is a major exception—along with amico and greco—that takes the soft -ci ending instead.
Why do we use per right before distruggere?
In this sentence, per translates to "in order to." Whenever you want to express the specific purpose or goal of an action (they plotted the conspiracy in order to destroy), you use per followed directly by an infinitive verb.
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