Rule reminder

The hearsay conditional (condizionale di distanziamento or condizionale giornalistico) uses the conditional tense to report unverified information: 'Il ministro avrebbe firmato un accordo segreto' = 'The minister allegedly signed a secret agreement' (we cannot verify this). Present conditional: 'sarebbe, avrebbe, intenderebbe' = 'allegedly is, has, intends'. Past conditional: 'sarebbe stato, avrebbe firmato, avrebbe detto' = 'allegedly was, signed, said'. This is a mandatory convention in serious Italian journalism.