"Lui vuole che tu mangi una mela."
Translation:He wants you to eat an apple.
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Here are two example sentences in English: "I want you to paint the house" and "I wish that you would paint the house".
The che is "that". Expressing desires, wishes and necessities (actually, a lot of uncertain things) follows the same structure as "I wish that..." = spero che, voglio che, desidero che... Additionally, you'll often see it followed by the subjunctive.
I opened this page because I was pretty surprised to find the subjunctive so close to the top of the tree. In traditional courses they first teach most of the tenses in the indicative (present, at least the passato prossimo, conditional, future) before passing to the subjunctive. Of course this particular sentence doesn't really throw you into needing to know the new endings since in the "tu" form it's the same both in the indicative and the subjunctive. https://www.wordreference.com/conj/ItVerbs.aspx?v=mangiare
I think it's like "que" from spanish, the sentence in spanish would be: "Él quiere que comas una manzana."
So funny, especially as I was trying to get my head around subjunctives. Thanks for the touch of humour.
It is. Often the subjunctive has the same conjugation in first, second and third person singular:
Voglio che tu mangi...
Vuoi che io mangi...
Vogliamo che lei mangi...
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I haven't learnt the subjunctive yet in Italian, but as it's so similar to French, I was wondering if it applies in this case. Thanks for clarifying!
The subjunctive is almost always (no exceptions come to my mind right now but I'm not sure the aren't any) introduced by "che": "che io mangi", "che tu voglia", "che egli parli"...
There are certain conjunctions that require a subjunctive, too. "Perché" for example actually changes meaning from "because" to "in order to" if you use subj. after it. :)
I translated it as "he wishes that" and got it wrong. I know "to wish" is "desiderare", but it seemed more fitting in this case.
"He wants that you eat the apple." (completely wrong in English) was accepted. At least it gave me the chance to see all the helpful responses and the correct translation.
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"He wishes that you eat the apple," is probably what it meant to accept. Wish/want are pretty similar in terms of context, and the sentence is perfectly acceptable English, but a bit archaic sounding.
I take it you are suggesting, "Lui vuole tu mangiare una mela." This direct translation from English is disjointed and nonsensical in Italian. To say, in Italian, that one person wants someone else to do something, you have to use the subjunctive. However, if he wants to eat the apple himself, the infinitive is correct:
- "Lui vuole mangiare una mela." = "He wants to eat an apple."
Simply because "una mela" means "an apple" rather than "that apple." The word "che" = "that" in the sentence does not refer to the apple. It is part of the construction "Che tu mangi" = "that you (would) eat."
i think that " he wishes that you eat an apple" should be accepted instead of duolingos acceptable translation " he wants that you eat an apple."
Yeah came here to say this. Wish sounds much more natural in english and works as a translation here. (Both should be accepted).
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This is because the English "He wants you to eat the apple" uses an infinitive construction, but Italian does not require it. That's the simplest explanation for now (and I realize it's not really much of an explanation).
Whenever you want to say, "Someone WANTS something to X" in Italian (or French for that matter), you must use the construction volere che + subjunctive.
"He wants you eat an apple" is not correct. — Why I have to put "to" after "you" ?
"he wants you eat..." is incorrect english grammar, "he wants you TO eat..." is correct, I do not understand why-but it is.
why does DL use italian subjunctive (as i found out in the COMMENTS) , while we have not been taught that yet? :/ it is confusing...
"He wants you to eat an apple." is not a natural way to say this in english. We would say, " He would like you to eat an apple."
"He wants that you eat an apple" was what it gave me as a correct answer
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Oh my God! This is a big problem for me. Because I'm already learning English. I can't understand explanations. Duolingo, please start the Turkish-Italian course. :(
Do i have to say "tu" here? Or can i just say "Lui voule che mangi una mela"?
The mangi here is in the subjunctive form and the io/tu/lui/lei all share the same form. So without the subject it is not possible to know who is supposed to eat.
