Breakdown of Il mio collega non fa altro che sbuffare.
non
not
mio
my
il collega
the colleague
fare
to do / to make
altro
other, another
che
than (in comparisons)
sbuffare
to huff
Questions & Answers about Il mio collega non fa altro che sbuffare.
Why do we use che before the infinitive sbuffare instead of a preposition like di or a?
The phrase non fare altro che literally translates to "to not do other than." In this fixed expression, che functions like "than" or "but" in English ("nothing but"). Unlike many verbs that require di or a to link to a following infinitive, this specific structure always pairs directly with che followed by the present infinitive.
What exactly does sbuffare mean in this context?
Sbuffare literally means to puff, pant, or snort. In an everyday context like the workplace, it describes someone huffing, sighing heavily, or expressing loud exasperation.
Collega ends in -a, but we use the masculine article il mio. How does the gender of this noun work?
How would I say "My colleague did nothing but huff" in the past tense?
You only need to conjugate the verb fare into the past tense, usually the passato prossimo: Il mio collega non ha fatto altro che sbuffare. The rest of the expression, including the infinitive sbuffare, stays exactly the same.
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