Non ho idea di cosa succederà domani.

English Translation

I have no idea what’ll happen tomorrow.

I wonder whether “succeda” would work here.

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You mean, using the present for future, like “Domani vado in città”. I wonder…

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I don’t think “succeda” (congiuntivo presente) is appropriate in this case since “I have no idea” is a statement of fact. The use of the congiuntivo normally requires an expression of wishes, doubt, emotion, belief, value judgement, uncertainty, etc.

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If you search on “non ho idea” you will find plenty of subjunctives, so I would say it fits the uncertainty criterion.

Update: then again, Italian future tense can express uncertainty.

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Whoops, I had a wobbly with succedo/i/e. The congiuntivo as interesting as always. I often put it “just in case” but here I’m just not sure.

Edit: In our Italian club Piero added lots of help under “Italian language” if u fancy looking.

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It might be that both can work. To add to the discussion, I did two things:

  1. I put the English translation into Google Translate and DeepL. Both translated it into Italian using the future tense.

  2. I put both Italian phrases into Reverso and checked the first five sentences provided to see if any clear pattern emerged:

(a) “non ho idea di cosa succederà”

  • Non ho idea di cosa succederà .
  • Non ho idea di cosa succederà in aprile, quando vado a dare il mio giuramento.
  • Ma è tutto da vedersi: non ho idea di cosa succederà in questo campo.
  • Non ho idea di cosa succederà nel futuro.
  • Se devo essere del tutto onesta, non ho idea di cosa succederà .

(b) “non ho idea di cosa succeda”

  • Non ho idea di cosa succeda quando fa buio.
  • Uh… Non ho idea di cosa succeda in questa parte.
  • Davvero non ho idea di cosa succeda ma da quanto si legge su questo bilancio manca metà del fondo.
  • In verità, non esco mai, quindi non ho idea di cosa succede .
  • Non ho idea di cosa mi succede .

The fourth and fifth sentences from the “succeda” search had “succede” instead. I don’t know why that occurred. The fifth sentence should probably be ignored entirely because the subjects of the main and dependent verbs are the same (although the structure is an indirect object); in such case, the subjunctive should not be used.

It’s difficult to draw definitive conclusions based on pattern recognition but looking at the first three sentences as well as subsequent sentences, my impression was that the “succeda” sentences rarely focused on future events.

I think we’re ready for input from a native speaker! :grinning:

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Ciao di nuovo. This might be of interest from one of our club’s madrelingua:

Con “Non ho idea” è normalmente richiesto il congiuntivo (succeda = congiuntivo presente) => Es: Non ho idea di cosa succeda a Venezia quando c’è l’acqua alta.

Visto che nella frase data si precisa “domani”, io userei solo il futuro (che esiste solo all’indicativo) => Non ho idea di cosa succederà domani (a Venezia con l’acqua alta prevista)"

The congiuntivo as fascinating as ever :wink:

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Using the future feels natural in this case, and it is the right tense to use.

However, sometimes, in informal conversation, maybe a little improperly, we use the present tense to refer to future events; in this case, the use of the subjunctive is appropriate.

E.g if someone asks “Che cosa succede domani?” Then you could answer “Non ho idea di che cosa succeda domani”. Or even “di cosa succede domani”. I think especially the latter version is informal, conversational.

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