39 Comments
List of verbs, in any conjugation, that require "di", of, before any infinitive that follows
accettare di—to accept ammettere di—to admit aspettare di—to wait for augurare di—to wish avere bisogno di—to need cercare di—to try chiedere di—to ask confessare di—to confess consigliare di—to advise contare di—to plan credere di—to believe decidere di—to decide dimenticare di—to forget dubitare di—to doubt fingere di—to pretend finire di—to finish ordinare di—to order pensare di—to plan permettere di—to permit pregare di—to beg proibire di—to prohibit promettere di—to promise proporre di—to propose ringraziare di—to thank sapere di—to know smettere di—to stop sperare di—to hope suggerire di—to suggest tentare di—to attempt vietare di—to avoid
We pray / welcome / ask her to come with us. Polite "you" would be capitalized Lei.
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A sentence you do not want to hear as you pass through security at the airport in Rome.
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I thought that la, when used as a direct object = she or it, as well as the formal you
It does; in this case it's literally: We beg (preghiamo) you (la) to (di) come (venire) with (con) us (noi). It's a very polite way of speaking, more so than the given translation "Please come with us", which could be translated as "Per favore venga con noi".
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Grazie! So if a sentence has some form of pregare for the verb, I should assume that the formal you is the correct choice?
Well, pregare has more uses than this formal way of speaking, and it also means to pray; also, it's not like interpreting the phrase as "we beg her to come with us" is grammatically wrong. It's just that in some contexts the verb is automatically associated with a polite usage, and in that case it usually refers to the listener/reader. A common example is "preghiamo la gentile clientela di leggere il regolamento" (we beg the kind customers to read the regulations"), while "ti prego" (I beg you) is what you'd say when asking a favor from a reluctant friend.
"preghiamo la gentile clientela di " - always brings a smile to my face - sounds ever so old fashioned to British ears - it could also make you somewhat cynical about Italian manners and formality since I have the impression that Italian consumer rights and some business's response to returns and product issues can be somehat less than wonderful.
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so this sentence really could be "we pray that you'll come with us" archaic, but pleasant.. :-) 27Jul15
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Wow.. Italian language really is a rich language. The word "Prego" could mean : please, welcome, beg, and pray! That is really amazing.
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There's no "ask" in the sentence - "chiedere" for instance, so, besides putting "please" in a different place, you've translated the sentence incorrectly. "La preghiamo" means "we pray you" which is an idiomatic phrase for "please", but literally translated it's archaic, like saying "Prithee" in English.
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You've translated "La preghiamo" twice, once as "we ask you" and a second time as "please". It can't be both when separated like that. Perhaps if you'd said, "We ask you please to come with us", but that also seems like a double-translation.
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More to the point is: Why do you want to change the word order and meaning from that of the Italian sentence? "Please come with us" is a literal and literate translation of the sentence, preserving the Italian word order.
There's a basic, unwritten rule to basic study of foreign language: If there's a reasonable cognate or English version which closely mirrors the foreign sentence, use the cognate or closest English version. It's not good translation to do otherwise, unless you have a very good reason for doing so.
Two good reasons I can think of (which don't apply here):
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You're translating poetry or lyrics
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You're translating something which is fairly or very idiomatic in either the foreign language, English, or both.
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"We pray that you come with us" - should this be marked incorrect?
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Would you translate it as "Prithee, come with us"? Same difference. It means "please" here. Why make it more complicated that it needs to be?
Besides the fact that "come with" is quite different from "come and visit", that's a pretty interesting misunderstanding considering that the typical setting for this sentence is when you're getting detained by the police for questioning.
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Could this sentence also mean "She is welcome to come with us" ? Or would the structure be different? Thank you.
"Being welcome to" is more a permission or an invitation than a request, so no, the meanings don't overlap in my opinion. There isn't really a close translation though; the closest literal one would be "è libera di" (she's free to), but typically I'd say something like "può venire con noi, se le va" (she can come with us if she wishes).
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No, unless you are a king speaking in plural for himself ;)
- La preghiamo di venire con noi = We beg you to come with us
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I put we ask that you go with us, which is the same as please come with us ... Should that be accepted?
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The verbs "to go" and "to come" are different words, so to translate venire as "to go" is false by definition. Although it has the same general intent, I'd still say it's incorrect because of that verb definition.
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Not a native speaker, but I guess if you want to translate this literally then it would more likely be "we beg her to come with us".
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"We welcome you to come with us." is both my translation of the words and interpretation of the sentiment. I often use the term "You are welcome to come with us", which is the same sentiment, though would be a different configuration of Italian words.
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For the absolute absence of the male gender in these lessons: for a man it's "le preghiamo", isn't it?
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I typed "Please will you come with us", as a polite English equivalent, but this was not accepted.
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This is a thing you cannot translate because it doesn't exist in English but I think "I beg you" would be more close.
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Would 'We are asking you to come with us '. be an acceptable translation?
