"Perhaps it is already so."
Translation:Magari è già così.
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I'd like to know which is the best choice here: forse or magari? how would one know which to use?
Forse expresses simple doubt, magari underlines the contrast to what's being said before; perhaps the speaker has been making plans and now he wonders if they're unneeded, as "it is already so". In other contexts (I don't think that's the case here) magari can be used for something one wishes (magari fosse così - I'd be glad if it were so).
Hm yeah it would work in this case, but it wouldn't in many others; magari has too many idiomatic uses.
I would stick with forse because magari has other implications, depending on the verb forms and even the region of Italy.
'maybe' with the hint or implication of a wish or wishful thinking I believe. Undoubtedly other uses as well as GredHullender has said.
Già is an adverb which normally follows a verb when modifying it. Exceptions are unusual. If there is more than one verb, it follows the first, e.g. "it could already have been so" = ha già potuto essere così.
I'm not sure when you use an abnormal word order but I think I've seen (a) for stress and (b) in an idiom. Hard to use for we foreigners, especially English speakers.
As a native Spanish speaker, I'm having the same question... no idea why both aren't acceptable in Italian. Can anyone shed a little light on this, please?
Why on earth is the subjunctive not okay here? It's the most correct translation.
No, you can't use subjunctive here, even though the sentence expresses doubt: it's just not correct. As a rule, you can't use subjunctive after "secondo me" (in my opinion), forse (perhaps), probabilmente (probably), and a few others, even though they express doubt. In the case of "magari" using it with subjunctive changes the meaning from doubt to wish.
1336
It is the first that I am aware of these exceptions to what otherwise would default to the subjunctive. Thank you for that, Fernando.
As far as I know "magari" was never introduced as a new word (printed in red) as was the case with many words in past lessons.
In my experience, Italians wouldn't use magari in this way, but exclusively with a sense, "would that it were so" (i.e., wishing that it were or could be thus). They would use forse in this context.
Why isn't 'magari' provided as a hint along w/ 'forse' if that's what DL prefers? Strano!
Not exactly. "Probably" expresses the belief that there's a better than 50% chance for whatever's in question: "It'll probably rain today." "Perhaps" expresses less of a chance: "It'll perhaps rain today...but I doubt it."
To add another perspective, I've just read a post in http://italian.stackexchange.com/questions/5392/differenze-di-uso-tra-forse-e-magari that suggests magari is said with hope, confidence or probability (its root is the Greek for felice/happy) and forse is said with doubt, uncertainty or possibility. The hope element is what makes magari also the common idiom for "I wish" and "if only!"
It also says these basic elements vary regionally, which makes them a minefield for foreigners, e.g. you risk communicating things like "hopefully the plane has crashed".
That could work, but it triggers the subjunctive, so it should be "può darsi che sia già così".