No. 769 in Italian
avesse
"Avesse" is the third-person singular imperfect subjunctive form of the verb "avere," meaning "had" or "were to have."
In a sentence
Se lui avesse tempo, verrebbe con noi.
If he had time, he would come with us.
In this sentence, 'avesse' is used as the imperfect subjunctive mood to denote a hypothetical situation in the past.
Non so se Mario avesse detto la verità.
I don't know if Mario had told the truth.
Here, 'avesse' appears as part of a subordinate clause introduced by uncertainty, requiring the imperfect subjunctive.
Avrei voluto che lei avesse un'opportunità.
I would have wanted her to have an opportunity.
In this case, 'avesse' is used to express a desire or regret for an unrealized circumstance, following a past conditional structure.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “avesse” in actual Italian podcasts.
Find “avesse” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Italian podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into italiano, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Italian books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).