For me, the most accurate way to say this would have been "combine the sugar and the egg" (unless of course "creaming" is actually intended.) However, with my past experiences with Duolingo, I was afraid to write "combine" but was totally expecting "unite" to be counted wrong since I knew that was not what was truly intended. I was pleasantly surprised when "unite" was counted correct, but I think a better edit to the class would be to add "combine" or "mix" in the list of appropriate meanings for the word...

Only sometimes you just mix sugar and egg without necessarily wanting or needing to cream them :-)

Actually, you would "cream" the butter and sugar together, rather than the sugar and egg.

Elena18: "cream" may well be the appropriate term, but it's definitely not the term most (American) English speakers would use. To suggest it to non-natives trying to learn basic English, runs the risk of misleading them into thinking it's a common term. "Combine" or "mix" are what the vast majority of natives would say.

Good point.

For correctness, blending eggs and sugar is "mixing". Blending sugar and butter (or other fat) is "creaming".

My guess is that it is "voi unite". . . you (plural) mix.

So my question is that if you are stating instructions in general (as in a recipe or asking for something at the table) do you always use the "voi" form? ("passi il sale" o "passate il sale"?)

The conjugation is already there, if you look hard: unisco, unisci, unisce, uniamo, unite, uniscono

I have a really hard time believing that unire is used in place of mescolare or mischiare for food preparation.

edit: I am now corrected. I've read some recipes written in Italian. Indeed, unire is used.

That's what I've been taught. Also that in Italian recipes the infinitive form of the verb is used. E.g. Mescolare lo zucchero e l'uova....

Thanks for the comment, I was wondering if this is actually how it is in context or if it was just teaching us the words.

Adding something and mixing something are different in cooking. "Add sugar and egg (to some food items you are preparing)" vs. "Mix the sugar and egg(separately)". Do you see what I'm getting at?

Because it uses second person plural. So it should possibly accept "you mix..." but "he mixes" could not be correct with this construction.

And may the sugar remain forever sweet and never so much as dare to beat the egg, lest the avvocato file a torta, and may they live forever in holy gastro-nomy.

I offered this just for consideration too, as I think that putting things in the same place is different from mixing/mashing/combining or even joining (as in fastening) them. Also 'add' might need something existing there to add to.

Yes, it can be imperative. They don't always seem to have entered the imperative answers in yet

I used "combine", even though it was not in the drop down hints, and DL accepted it!

I also would like to see in the drop down, or 'hover', the word that is eventually going to be the answer that is displayed back to me. I think that is a good idea. I don't profess to understand the word translation database or how the sentences are generated, but it does seem a reasonable request for each sentence.

In this case would "unite" or "mischiate" be more appropriate to a native speaker?

Actually, the more accurate term for English recipes here would be "combine". There is a specific verb for mix ("mescolare"or something like that) but in this case, they are saying to "unite" (i.e. combine) them, which in English would be to combine. (Think of a recipe, "combine the wet and dry ingredients..." whereas "mix" implies to actually use a mixer, etc.)

Ooohhh, that is a really tricky one. Technically it would be correct from a meaning perspective. However, Italian does not have phrasal verbs, and the translation you used is absolutely a phrasal verb. I suspect that is why it is not accepted. (I think a phrasal verb combination would only be accepted if there was not a common word that meant the same thing, which we have here in the form of both "mix" (although to me that one is controversial since "mix" and "combine" mean different things) and "combine". )

Marius...Recipes I believe use plural familiar commands, which explains "unite". If your mother/father were telling you to mix it, then it'd be "unisci". I see you also asked about "uniti" and as best as i can tell, that's not a form of "unire" in any tense or mood.