Breakdown of Le è stato chiesto di tornare in tribunale.
essere
to be
in
in / made of (material)
chiedere
to ask
tornare
to return
le
to her
di
to (linking a verb to a following infinitive)
il tribunale
the court
Questions & Answers about Le è stato chiesto di tornare in tribunale.
Since the English translation says "She was asked", shouldn't the past participle agree and be feminine: Le è stata chiesta?
No, because Le means "to her" and is an indirect object, not the subject of the sentence. In Italian, you cannot make an indirect object the subject of a passive sentence. The literal structure here is "It was asked to her." Because the subject is an impersonal "it", the past participle defaults to the masculine singular chiesto.
Why do we use the indirect object pronoun Le instead of the direct object La?
The verb chiedere (to ask) requires an indirect object when you are indicating the person being asked (chiedere a qualcuno). Because it's an indirect-transitive verb, the passive voice must be constructed impersonally as "it was asked to her", which requires the indirect pronoun Le.
Why is there a di before tornare?
When chiedere is followed by an infinitive verb to mean "to ask someone to do something", it requires the preposition di to link the two verbs together.
Why do we say in tribunale instead of al tribunale for "to court"?
Many public institutions and common destinations in Italian take the preposition in without any definite article. Just as you say in banca (to the bank) or in farmacia (to the pharmacy), you say in tribunale to mean going to court.
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