Chiara:	Hai sentito dell’iniziativa del famoso marchio di abbigliamento italiano Diesel?
Stefano:	Quale iniziativa?
Chiara:	A New York la griffe italiana ha aperto un piccolo negozio temporaneo di jeans, t-shirt e felpe all’apparenza contraffatta a causa del nome del marchio storpiato: “Deisel” anziché “Diesel”.
Stefano:	Vuoi dire che la gente ha comprato capi originali pensando che fossero falsi?
Chiara:	Proprio così! Immagina la loro reazione quando hanno scoperto di aver pagato pochi dollari per della merce che sulla Quinta strada costava 10 volte di più.
Stefano:	Incredibile! Se solo avessero saputo dell’affare, sono sicuro che non si sarebbero limitati a comprare pochi capi… Secondo te, qual è stato lo scopo dell’iniziativa?

For our final lesson on Italian hypothetical constructions, we will explore if-clauses that express situations that, for whatever reason, cannot come into fruition. The reason for this is usually due to the fact that the conditions necessary for the hypothetical event to have taken place were not carried out at some point in the past, ultimately resulting in an impossible outcome:

Se (io) avessi studiato di più, avrei superato l’esame di matematica. If I had studied more, I would have passed the math exam.

The sentence above exemplifies a hypothetical construction of the impossible kind; because the speaker cannot change what he/she has already done or not done (which in this case is to have not studied more), passing the exam is an impossible outcome. It is implied that it has already been taken and the speaker did not pass. Let’s take a look at another example:

Se Carlo ed io non ci fossimo conosciuti alla festa di Maria, ora non saremmo coinquilini. If Carlo and I had not met at Maria’s party, we wouldn’t be roommates now.

This example expresses how Carlo and the speaker are now roommates as a result of having met at Maria’s party. Had they not met, their friendship--and now, cohabitational relationship--would never have blossomed, yet this is an impossible hypothetical situation due to the fact that they did meet.

The grammar necessary to form this type of construction is as follows:

Dependent Clause	Independent Clause
Se + Past Perfect Subjunctive	Past Conditional Present Conditional

The first example above shows a construction with the past conditional (avrei superato l’esame), while the second example features the present conditional (ora non saremmo coinquilini). When a verb in the past conditional is used in the independent clause, it simply means that the (impossible) hypothetical result was not realized at some point in the past; with the present conditional, the (impossible) hypothetical result is not realized in the present. Here is another pair of examples--one with the past conditional, and one with the present conditional--that show us an impossible hypothetical construction in action:

With Past Conditional:

Ieri avrei saputo rispondere alle domande del professore sul testo, se lo avessi letto prima. Yesterday I would have known how to answer the professor’s questions about the text, if I had read it first.

With Present Conditional:

Ora saprei rispondere alle domande del professore sul testo, se lo avessi letto ieri pomeriggio. I would know how to answer the professor’s questions about the text right now, if I had read it yesterday afternoon.

NB: the order of the clauses does not matter; they are interchangeable, as our examples above show.