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- "Dici che è grave?"
31 Comments
644
"are you saying" is certainly used in this context. I went for that and got marked wrong.
No, it's used, but not in this context: the Italian question isn't about what someone else is saying, but asking the other person to say whether what the speaker just said represents a serious condition/illness. E.g. https://www.repubblica.it/online/cultura_scienze/bucchi/sessanta/sessanta.html: "Da depresso sento che mi mancano enormemente i libri su cui ho studiato all'università. Dici che è grave?" (when I'm depressed I feel that I'm missing enormously the books I studied on in University. Do you think it's serious?)
It might sound right, but it's quite the opposite of what the Italian sentence means: it's not a reaction to what someone else is saying, it's a request to say whether something is a problem. The actual translation might be quite far depending on context: e.g. "ho premuto il pulsante rosso, dici che è grave?" I would translate with "I pressed the red button, is that bad?" Or in an exchange like https://twitter.com/Dlavolo/status/531349842157912064 I would translate it with "is it that bad?"
Do you say it is serious ? Is the given correct answer. But I would like to meet the person who would ever say this. They would stand alone while every other English speaking person would say “ Did you say it is serious”
132
I still think 'are you saying it is serious ? ' is a valid translation, 'do you say it is serious ?' is not good English.