Question 1

Wait, doesn't anticipare mean "to anticipate"? Why does the translation say "bring forward"?

Accepted Answer

Anticipare is a classic false friend! It means "to bring forward" or "to advance" an event to an earlier time. If you want to say "to anticipate" in the sense of expecting or foreseeing something, you should use prevedere or aspettarsi.

Question 2

Why do we use per before discutere? Can't we just use the infinitive like in English?

Accepted Answer

In English, the infinitive "to discuss" naturally expresses the purpose of the meeting. In Italian, to express "in order to [do something]", you must use per + infinitive. If you just wrote la riunione discutere, it would sound grammatically incomplete, like saying "the meeting discuss".

Question 3

Since budget is an English loanword, how do we know its gender and plural form in Italian?

Accepted Answer

Foreign loanwords in Italian are generally treated as masculine by default (hence il budget), unless the word refers to something inherently feminine. They are also invariable, meaning their endings don't change in the plural. "The budgets" would simply be i budget.

Question 4

How could I use this lesson's word, altrimenti (otherwise), to expand on this sentence?

Accepted Answer

You can use altrimenti to introduce the negative consequence of not bringing the meeting forward. It usually introduces a new clause. For example: Il supervisore vuole anticipare la riunione, altrimenti non avremo tempo per discutere il budget. (The supervisor wants to bring forward the meeting, otherwise we won't have time to discuss the budget).

Il supervisore vuole anticipare la riunione per discutere il budget.

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