Question about sample sentence in lesson 8.2

One of the sample phrases in this section is “Se si è fiduciosi e si hanno i vocaboli, si possono affrontare tutte le situazioni.” Why is the first sentence fragment singular “Se si è fiduciosi” but the second and third fragments are plural “si hanno i vocaboli” and “si possono affrontare”? Isn't the subject of the whole sentence the same rhetorical one (if one is confident and one has the vocabulary one can deal with all situations). What am I missing?

Hi MarkB137, 

Thanks for your question!

While in the first part of the sentence “se si è fiduciosi" the verb (è) is in the third singular person (as it's an impersonal sentence, “if one is confident”), in the second part of the sentence “si hanno vocaboli” the verb (hanno) agrees with “vocaboli” (masc. plural), which is the direct object. 

If you had a singular direct object instead, you would have had “si ha + D.O." like in the following example:

“Se si è fiduciosi e si ha coraggio, si possono affrontare tutte le situazioni.”  (coraggio - masc. sing.)

So while the verb to be (essere) always agrees with the third sing. person, the verb to have (avere) agrees with the direct object. 

Hope this helps!