Breakdown of A furia di suonare la chitarra, gli è venuto un callo.
essere
to be
un
a / an (masculine)
gli
the
venire
to come
suonare
to play (an instrument)
la
her/it (direct object)
la chitarra
the guitar
il callo
callus
a furia di
through sheer / by dint of
Questions & Answers about A furia di suonare la chitarra, gli è venuto un callo.
Could I use a forza di instead of a furia di in this sentence?
Yes, they are completely interchangeable. Both mean "by dint of" or "from doing something so much" and are used to show that a repeated or continuous action caused a specific result. Both must be followed by an infinitive, like suonare.
Why do we use the infinitive suonare instead of a gerund like suonando to translate "playing"?
In Italian, whenever a verb immediately follows a preposition (in this case, the di in a furia di), it must be in the infinitive form. English uses the "-ing" form after prepositions, but Italian strictly requires the infinitive.
Why does the Italian sentence use è venuto instead of a verb like ottenere or prendere for "got"?
If the translation is "he got a callus", why is the auxiliary verb essere (è) instead of avere?
Because the grammatical subject of the main clause is actually un callo (a callus), not "he". The verb is venire (to come), which is a verb of motion that requires the auxiliary essere. gli is just the indirect object showing to whom the callus came.
Doesn't an implicit clause (like a furia di suonare) usually require the main clause to have the exact same subject?
Normally, yes! But this is a common, widely accepted exception. The grammatical subject of the main clause is un callo, which obviously isn't playing the guitar. However, Italian allows this structure because the logical subject of the playing matches the indirect object gli (him).
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