Learn Italian: Faceva così freddo che perfino il lago era ghiacciato. - It was so cold that even the lake was frozen.

Faceva così freddo che perfino il lago era ghiacciato.

It was so cold that even the lake was frozen.

Breakdown of Faceva così freddo che perfino il lago era ghiacciato.

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Questions & Answers about Faceva così freddo che perfino il lago era ghiacciato.

Why do we use Faceva (imperfect) instead of Ha fatto (passato prossimo) here?

When describing weather conditions or setting a scene in the past, Italian almost always uses the imperfect tense. Faceva freddo describes the ongoing background state of the weather at that time, rather than a single, completed event.

If I wanted to say 'It wasn't cold at all,' how would I apply the emphatic negatives from this lesson?

You would say Non faceva affatto freddo or Non faceva per niente freddo. Remember that emphatic negative reinforcers like affatto and per niente must be placed immediately after the conjugated verb.

Does the così... che (so... that) structure ever require the subjunctive?

In this sentence, che is followed by the indicative (era) because it introduces a consecutive clause expressing a factual, realized consequence (the lake actually froze). It generally takes the indicative unless the main clause is negative or expresses a hypothetical situation.

Could I use anche instead of perfino in this sentence?

Grammatically yes, but perfino is much better here. While anche just means 'also' or 'even', perfino adds a strong sense of surprise or extremity, emphasizing that the lake freezing is a dramatic and unexpected result of the cold.