Breakdown of Fino a due giorni fa, non sapevo che quello sconosciuto fosse mio fratello.
essere
to be
non
not
il fratello
the brother
quello
that
mio
my
due
two
il giorno
the day
a
to / at
sapere
to know
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
fa
ago
fino
until, up to (fino a)
lo sconosciuto
the stranger
Questions & Answers about Fino a due giorni fa, non sapevo che quello sconosciuto fosse mio fratello.
Why is fosse used here instead of the indicative era?
The verb fosse is in the imperfect subjunctive. Because the main clause is a negative statement of knowledge (non sapevo), it triggers the subjunctive in the dependent clause. Since the main verb is in a past tense, we use the imperfect subjunctive to show that him being your brother was a fact at the exact same time you didn't know it.
Could I use the past perfect subjunctive (fosse stato) instead of fosse in this sentence?
Not if you want to keep the exact same meaning. Using the imperfect subjunctive fosse shows that the two things happened at the same time. If you used fosse stato (had been), it would refer to an action completed before your state of not knowing, which doesn't make logical sense in this context.
Why is it quello sconosciuto and not quel sconosciuto?
Why is there no article before mio fratello? Shouldn't it be il mio?
In Italian, you must drop the definite article when using a possessive adjective with a singular close family member. Since fratello is singular, it is just mio fratello, not il mio fratello. If the noun were plural (i miei fratelli) or altered (il mio fratellino), you would keep the article.
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