[details=“English Translation”]The teacher wouldn’t allow us to speak French in the classroom.[/details] Why is this sentence in the conditional tense? My instinct would be to put it in the imperfect. “La professoressa non ci permetteva di parlare francese in classe.” It’s something in the past that happens over time. I’ve struggled with the translation of the English “would” and “would not” for some time. They seem to have two uses that cross boundaries of tense. For instance: “I would go to the movies, but I’m busy.” and “I would go to the movies every day.” Are there any good articles on the web that clarify? Also, how would you say this if the statement started with, “Stamattina”? “Stamattina la professoressa non ci ha permesso di parlare francese in classe.”?
I’m not a native speaker of Italian but here’s my interpretation. I added extra words to the English translations to provide more context even though they may change the intended meaning of the original sentence.
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La professoressa non ci permetterebbe di parlare francese in classe.
The professor would not allow us to speak French in class…but we’re doing it or will do it. (present conditional) -
La professoressa non ci permetteva di parlare francese in classe.
The teacher didn’t allow us to speak French in class…when I was young. (imperfect) -
La professoressa non ci avrebbe permesso di parlare francese in classe.
The teacher would not have allowed us to speak French in class…but we did it. (past conditional)
If you’re a native or fluent English speaker, you might find this book helpful: English Grammar for Students of Italian: The Study Guide for those learning Italian 3rd Edition.
A splendid reply, if I may say so! 