"Sarebbe meglio se ognuno pensasse come te."
Translation:It would be best if everyone thought like you.
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Something is not right here. An adverb cannot follow a link verb such as "to be", "to seem" etc. It should be an adjective. When we say, for example, "it would be better", 'better' is an adjective, not an adverb as opposed to 'better' in "I can do it better" where it is an adverb. So either 'meglio' is an adjective, or Italian has a strange syntax.
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In correct English, there is really one option here and that is "better".
The other issues with subjunctive, when to use which tense and mood, is matter of looking at both clauses, the main and the sub. That's how you crack the puzzle.
Indicative present/future: Se ho.....faccio.... Se avrò....farò
Imperfect/conditional Se avessi....farei
Past perfect Se avessi avuto....avrei fatto and here it is considered correct with plain imperfetto: Se avevo...faccevo
I skipped the subjunctive present, but it follows the same rules.
/John
Nice try, but Americans would not say 'best' for general statements like this one. It's a strange sentence even in Italian. It would be more natural for someone to say 'best' when discussing a specific situation, I think, as they would be offering a solution or recommendation. Simple, general observations of this type are more naturally expressed with 'better' and probably a beer or three.
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Why is this reply downvoted? It's absolutely correct: bad English. The reason is that the tenses don't match (past and present cannot be in one sentence like this).
I agree with nayrad above: Present subjunctive in English IS 'thought" not "thinks". E.g "If you thought so, you would go today." "If you went today...; if you ate more vegis,...etc. Present subjunctive in English is based on the past indicative. Use of the present indicative results in what's called an "open" conditional sentence: If he thinks she will quit her job, he will apply for it vs If he thought she would quit her job, he would apply for it. There's a big difference in meaning depending upon whether the present indicative or the subjunctive is used.
"thought the same as you" was rejected. I don't understand why. To me "thought like you" and "thought the same as you" mean the same, the only difference being that the latter occurs more often in a conversation then the former. The reason for that is that the process of thinking is the same for all people and the statement refers to the person's opinion, rather than the process of thinking. So, it seems to me that, in English, at least, "thinks the same" is more appropriate a phrase that "thinks like...".
artluvva: Duo's sentence that I see has "everyone". If 'each one' is used then it's of course normally spelled out, though in informal exchanges on current social media such as Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, etc. it's often/usually abbreviated to "each 1". btw- do you realize that when you wrote out your comment to the effect that "Each 1 is never spelt with a 1," ironically that's precisely what you did. Hmmmn.
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In my opinion this exoression has to be wether: It would be best, if everyone thinks like you. or: It would have been better, if everyone thought like you. I'm a fan of the second solution. But in this case the Italian expression has to change too.