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  5. "Lei aveva saputo andare su d…


"Lei aveva saputo andare su due ruote."

May 6, 2013



To me it sounds "Lei mi aveva ..." And that is not the first time such a thing happens. In this sentence it would be nonsense so I just ignore it but in other phrases the result is a good expression, so I write down "lei mi etc." and then I lose a heart. Use feedback.


Yeah it is a common that I can hear an extra "mi" in some sentences. Because I try to answer the questions without looking at the words it causes me some problems too. I'll report this one too.


The sound is not perfect, it is possible to understand but it sounds weird as if there was a word after 'Lei', like :'Lei le aveva saputo andare su due ruote'.


How can I know that the "how" is implied?


Sapere + infinitive, means "to know how to" eg "Tu sai leggere" is "You know how to read".


Wouldn't this mean 'She had known....'? I thought 'She knew......' would be 'Lei ha saputo.....'.


I think you might be right. If I was translating into Italian I would translate it as "Lei sapeva andare su..." as the imperfect tense implies a continuous knowledge. I thought that the perfect tenses indicated a point in time where the knowledge was completed, closer to "She had found out..." rather than "She knew...".

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