Italian conditional sentence

Hi, there! I am Luca and in this video I would d like to talk about the monstrous sentence pattern referred to as "periodo ipotetico" (conditional sentence).

More specifically, I would like to explain why, in my opinion, and let me stress "in my opinion", before someone gets offended, talking about the "periodo ipotetico" doesn't make much sense, especially when trying to explain this sentence pattern to non-native speakers who study the Italian language.

I have noticed that recently it's quite trendy to talk about the "periodo ipotetico". I have seen that many channels which publish Italian language lessons have recently published several videos about the "periodo ipotetico".

I've noticed that, for the most part, these channels tend to follow the traditional approach to the "periodo ipotetico". That is, they distinguish between first class, second class, and third class conditional sentences. Or between conditional sentences "della realtà", "della possibilità", "dell'impossibilità".

Alright. This is very nice and it is how the conditional sentence used to be taught some decades ago.

In this video I would like to try and explain why in my opinion such approach, especially when we talk about non-native speakers, is not optimal. Or rather, risks to complicate things, that is, to make something relatively simple insanely difficult.

In other words, such approach, let's call it the traditional approach to the conditional sentence, is the typical example where a grammatical explanation, which in theory should help people understand, actually makes things more complicated.

Basically, something simple is explained referring to ideas which are much more complex than the thing that needs to be explained.

In other words, if I need to explain something and in order to explain it I make reference to ideas which are more complex than the thing I want to explain, it's not clear why I would use these ideas in the first place.

You could say: "Whatever, Luca! People have always done that, so it means that it should be done this way!" Sure, this could be an approach. Here I would like to share my point of view.

Alright! First of all, people who explain the "periodo ipotetico" usually explain the word "ipotetico", but don't explain the word "periodo". Basically, these Italian language instructors take for granted that people watching their videos know what the word "periodo" means.

Alright! The problem is that the word "periodo" has a common, everyday meaning, that we all know, and, in addition, the word "periodo" also has a technical, linguistic meaning, which many people quite possibly ignore.

They ignore it not because they are dumb, but simply because they are not linguists, they didn't study grammar in a formal way, and therefore, as they see the word "periodo" they assume that it's the word "periodo" as used in everyday language.

So, if I say "Ieri non sono andato all'università, perché stavo male", this is a "periodo" (sentence). There are two "frasi" (clauses): "ieri non sono andato all'università", "perché stavo male". These two clauses form a sentence.

Why is this called "periodo ipotetico"? Because we are talking about a complex sentence, which is made up of two clauses (or propositions). We use the adjective "ipotetico" because it expresses something conditional on a given condition.

So, if I have a sentence such as "Se piove non esco", this is a conditional sentence, because the part "non esco" is contingent on the part "se piove". That is, if I say "Se piove, non esco", it means that if it rains, I won't go out, but if it doesn't rain, I'll probably go out. So the fact that I go out depends on whether it rains or not.

So what's the point? The point is that many people who study Italian have no problem understanding the word "se". And it is likely that in their language too there's an equivalent word, a word which is used roughly the same way.

So, instead of talking about "periodo ipotetico", it may be better to simply talk about IF-clauses in Italian, i.e. sentences with the word "se" - which specifically distinguishes this type of sentences.

It's clear that, if I need to explain this thing to a non-native speaker, for me and for him (or her) it's much more simple to talk about sentences with the word "se" rather than about "periodo ipotetico".

Because, like I said, first of all, if I say "periodo ipotetico", first of all I need to explain what "periodo" means, and secondly I need to explain what "ipotetico" means in this case.

To make things even worse, what do people typically do? They introduce subcategories of conditional sentences. So there's the general category "periodo ipotetico" and then people distinguish three types of conditional sentences, or rather, to make a play on words, I would say: "vengono indicate tre ipotetiche categorie di periodo ipotetico".

The problem is that these three subcategories of conditional sentence are usually distinguished based on a criteria that I would call philosophical, metaphysical that is, using three words: "realtà", "possibilità", "impossibilità" or "irrealtà".

Basically, to explain three different types of IF-clauses a reference is made to three philosophical concepts such as reality, possibility and irreality.

The problem is that it is very hard to understand what "realtà" means in the so called "periodo ipotetico della realtà". Because a sentence such as "Se piove prendo l'ombrello", or "Se piove non esco" I mean... - explaining it in terms of "periodo ipotetico della realtà" - it's difficult.

What I want to say is that, ok, one can do such analysis, but this is a very refined, very complex analysis, requiring much higher abstraction than explaining how to use the sentences with "se", what tenses should be used after "se".

I don't mean that people are dumb and won't understand the difference between conditional sentences of reality and possibility, I mean that these categories, these abstract concepts are not useful in the slightest to explain Italian IF-clauses.

Quite the opposite! I'll tell you more! Because there's the second type of conditional sentence which is called "della possibilità", which is often used when referring to things which are impossible.

For example, if I say: "Se fossi in te, farei questo". Why is this sentence referred to as "della possibilità"? It's obvious that I can't be you: I am me, and you are you. So I've jsut used a sentence referred to as possibility conditional sentence to indicate something impossible.

Overall, what I want to say is this. Let's not complicate things, that is, if we need to explain the sentences with "se", let's talk about the sentences with "se", let's not make reference to, that is, let's not introduce, abstract categories which are useless.

Because the only thing we can achieve with these three subcategories is the following. A non-native speaker, a foreign student, will panic whenever they need to use "se", they will not know what to do, what to say, because in their head a process will start of selection between three options, the student will start to think: but in this case should I use the real, possible, or unreal conditional sentence?

Basically, if had to explain these sentences to a non-native student, I wouldn't refer to the idea of "periodo ipotetico". I could possibly use the concept of "periodo ipotetico" with an Italian child, an Italian native speaker who already speaks Italian, and I would explain that to them at elementary school.

It's clear that with a non-native speaker I would use more simple explanations, having a more practical and direct application.

And therefore, like I said, I'd start this way, by saying: In Italian the word "se" can be used in different ways. For example, we can use it with the indicative present. Next, I would talk about this type of IF clause. And then I would say: "In theory, instead of the indicative present, in certain cases we could use the "congiuntivo imperfetto", etc.

So, to recap what I said, I don't mean that it's wrong to refer to the idea of "periodo ipotetico". I mean, if one wants to use it, they can use it. But to be honest, it's like explaining something by referring to ideas which are much more difficult to explain than the topic at hand.

Also because, like I said, these categories are rather questionable and it's questionable the use of words such as "realtà", "possibilità" and "irrealtà".

Because there's the risk of mixing up the level of grammatical analysis, so to speak, with the psycological, everyday level. For example, if someone says "Se potessi usare la macchina del tempo..." one may wonder: "How come this is called posisbility conditional sentence?"

Sure, if someone starts to explain  "No, actually possibility here means that bla bla bla..." and explains all shades of meaning of how the word "possibilità" should be understood - ok.

But why would one do all that, when in fact one can start by saying: "The IF-sentences in Italian are the following".

I say these things and care to say them, because it really seems to me that, for the poor non-native speaker, learning Italian, things get unnecessarily complicated.

Really, instead of simply explaining "These are the IF-clauses in Italian", people introduce the philosophical concept of "periodo ipotetico". People introduce complicated notions making everything more difficult.

Well, that's it! I hope that you have found this video helpful!

If you have any comments, if you don't agree with my point of view, if you want to write "No, it' not like that, it's not true! The periodo ipotetico is paramaount! It should be explained this way, people've always done that", please feel free to write that. This is my point of view. I have shared my opinion and I have no problems reading negative feedback about that.

Well, that's it! Having said that - till next time!