Breakdown of Ha finito per abbandonare il progetto.
il progetto
the project
abbandonare
to abandon, to give up
Questions & Answers about Ha finito per abbandonare il progetto.
Why do we use per here instead of di? Doesn't finire di mean to finish doing something?
You use finire di + infinitive when someone actively completes a specific task, like finishing a meal or reading a book. However, the construction finire per + infinitive is a special phrase that means "to end up doing something." It shows the final, sometimes inevitable or unintentional, outcome of a situation rather than just completing a chore.
Why does this sentence use avere (ha finito) instead of essere (è finito)?
How would the meaning change if I just said Alla fine ha abbandonato il progetto?
Saying alla fine ha abbandonato (in the end, he abandoned) communicates almost the exact same fact. But using the aspectual phrase ha finito per abbandonare emphasizes the process. It suggests he struggled with the decision, maybe tried other options first, and ultimately resulted in abandoning it as a final outcome.
Without a subject pronoun, how do we know this means "He ended up"? Could it be someone else?
It absolutely could be someone else! Because Italian usually drops the subject pronoun, ha finito can translate to "he ended up," "she ended up," or even "you (formal) ended up." We only know it translates to "he" here because of the wider context of whatever story this sentence was pulled from.
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