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Quell'inutile ostilità ha peggiorato la situazione.

Quell'inutile ostilità ha peggiorato la situazione.
That unnecessary hostility made the situation worse.
From Lesson 450:Being angry with someone (avercela)·Italian

Breakdown of Quell'inutile ostilità ha peggiorato la situazione.

quello
that
la situazione
the situation
peggiorare
to worsen
inutile
useless
l'ostilità
the hostility (f)

Questions & Answers about Quell'inutile ostilità ha peggiorato la situazione.

Why does peggiorare take avere (ha peggiorato) here instead of essere?
Peggiorare can be both transitive (to make something worse) and intransitive (to get worse). Because it has a direct object here (la situazione)—meaning the hostility made something else worse—it is transitive and takes avere. If the situation itself had just gotten worse without a direct object, you would use essere: La situazione è peggiorata (The situation got worse).
This lesson focuses on avercela (con qualcuno). How could I express the "hostility" in this sentence using that verb?
While this specific sentence uses the noun ostilità (hostility), you can use avercela con qualcuno (to be angry/hostile with someone) to express the same underlying emotion. You could rephrase the idea as: Ce l'avevano con noi, e questo ha peggiorato la situazione (They were hostile towards us, and this made the situation worse).
Ostilità is a feminine noun. Shouldn't the demonstrative adjective be quella instead of quell'?
It actually is quella! However, whenever quello or quella comes directly before a word starting with a vowel (in this case, the adjective inutile), it drops its final vowel and takes an apostrophe. So, quella inutile becomes quell'inutile.
Why is inutile placed before the noun (inutile ostilità) instead of after?
Placing an adjective before the noun often gives it a subjective, emotional, or descriptive emphasis. Un'ostilità inutile (after the noun) would simply state the objective fact that the hostility was useless. Putting inutile first emphasizes the speaker's subjective frustration about it.
Since ostilità ends in an accented vowel, how would I write it in the plural?
Nouns ending in an accented vowel (like città, università, or ostilità) are invariable in Italian, meaning their ending doesn't change in the plural. To say "those unnecessary hostilities", you only change the surrounding words: Quelle inutili ostilità.

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