La Parola del Giorno
I have set myself the challenge of translating the romanzo, ‘La forma dell’acqua‘ di Andrea Camilleri into English at the rate of a word a day.
The next word we shall look at is ‘aveva’. My dictionary gives this as:
aveva (vi & vt) = was having, had
aveva is the 3rd personal singular imperfect indicative (3° persona singolare dell’indicativo imperfetto) of the verb avere = to have
and gives as example:
lui aveva un lavoro = he had a job
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The story so far
Original Text:
Lume d’alba non filtrava nel cortiglio della «Splendor», la società che aveva . . .
Translation:
Dawn’s light was not filtering into the courtyard of the ‘Splendor’, the company that had . . .
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Vocabulary:
| alba | sf | dawn, sunrise, daybreak |
| avere | vt | to have |
| infinitive (infinito) | ||
| aveva | vt | was having, had |
| aveva is the 3rd personal singular imperfect indicative (3° persona singolare dell’indicativo imperfetto) of the verb avere | ||
| lui aveva un lavoro= he had a job | ||
| che | pron | that |
| cortiglio | sm | courtyard |
| cortile | sm | courtyard |
| della | prep & art | of the, from the, about the |
| di , d’ | prep | of, from, about |
| filtrare | vi & vt | to filter |
| infinitive (infinito) | ||
| filtrava | vi & vt | was filtering, filtered |
| filtrava is the 3rd personal singular imperfect indicative (3° persona singolare dell’indicativo imperfetto) of the verb filtrare | ||
| la luce filtrava dalla finestra = the light filtered in through the window | ||
| il | art m | the |
| in | prep | in, into |
| la | art f | the |
| lume | sm | light, lamp |
| nel | prep & art | in the, into the |
| non | avv | not |
| io non ho = I have not | ||
| Franco non ha = Frank has not | ||
| società | sf | company, firm, corporation, business |
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Verbs:
Imperfect Tense
The imperfect is a past tense used to express what someone was doing or what someone used to do or to describe something in the past. The imperfect refers particularly to something that continued over a period of time, as opposed to something that happened at a specific time.
Indicative mood:
The normal mood of a verb as in ‘I like’, ‘he came’, ‘we are trying’ as opposed to subjunctive, conditonal and imperative moods.
The indicative mood is the most common and is used to express facts and opinions or to make inquiries. Most of the statements you make or you read will be in the indicative mood.
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Abbreviations:
| art | articolo | article |
| avv | avverbo | adverb |
| f | feminile | feminine |
| m | maschile | masculine |
| prep | preposizione | preposition |
| pron | pronome | pronoun |
| sf | sostinavo feminile | feminine noun |
| sm | sostinavo maschile | masculine noun |
| vi | verbo intransitivo | intransitive verb |
| vt | verbo transitivo | transitive verb |
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