Breakdown of Anna diceva che lo mollava, ma è spuntata con lui.
lui
he
ma
but
Anna
Anna
con
with
dire
to say, to tell
lo
him/it (direct object)
che
that (conjunction introducing a clause)
mollare
to drop, to dump
spuntare
to show up, to appear
Questions & Answers about Anna diceva che lo mollava, ma è spuntata con lui.
Why is mollava translated as 'would dump' rather than 'was dumping'?
This is a perfect example of your current lesson. In everyday spoken Italian, the imperfect (mollava) frequently replaces the more formal past conditional to express the 'future in the past' in reported speech. She was talking about a future event from a past perspective.
How would this sentence look if we used strictly formal grammar for 'would dump'?
Why use diceva (imperfect) instead of ha detto (passato prossimo)?
Using the imperfect diceva gives the sense that she was saying it repeatedly or over a period of time. It implies she kept saying it. If you used ha detto, it would sound like a single, isolated statement.
Why does spuntata end in -a and use essere as its auxiliary?
The verb spuntare (to emerge, appear, or turn up) is an intransitive verb. Like many verbs describing appearance or a change in state, it requires essere in compound tenses. Because it uses essere, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the feminine subject, Anna, becoming spuntata.
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