Learn Italian: Dovresti spiegarmi tutto; non sapevo che mi avessero ricoverato. - You should explain everything to me; I didn't know that they had admitted me.

Dovresti spiegarmi tutto; non sapevo che mi avessero ricoverato.

You should explain everything to me; I didn't know that they had admitted me.

Breakdown of Dovresti spiegarmi tutto; non sapevo che mi avessero ricoverato.

Questions & Answers about Dovresti spiegarmi tutto; non sapevo che mi avessero ricoverato.

Why does non sapevo che trigger the subjunctive here when sapevo che normally doesn't?

Positive statements of knowledge like sapevo che state a fact and take the indicative. However, making it negative (non sapevo che) turns it into a negative declaration of knowledge. This introduces subjective doubt or unreality, triggering the subjunctive. Because the hospital admission happened before the past realization, it takes the past perfect subjunctive (trapassato congiuntivo).

Why is the verb avessero ricoverato in the 'they' form if the speaker doesn't specify who admitted them?

The verb is in the third-person plural (avessero) to act as an impersonal 'they,' referring generally to the doctors or hospital staff. This is a very common way to avoid the passive voice in Italian, much like saying 'they admitted me' in English.

Could I put the pronoun mi somewhere else in Dovresti spiegarmi?

Yes. Because dovresti is a modal verb (a helper verb like can, want, or should), the pronoun can either attach to the dropped 'e' of the infinitive to make spiegarmi, or it can move before the conjugated modal verb to make mi dovresti spiegare. Both are correct and mean the exact same thing.

Can I use ricoverare for 'to admit' in other contexts, like admitting a mistake?