"Vuoi che io ti porti il giornale di oggi?"
Translation:Do you want me to bring you today's newspaper?
15 Comments
Why not "mi ti porto"? "Ti porti" should be "you bring", not I bring to you ... Am I right?
You've just come across what is called the subjunctive...a rare bird in English.
The subjunctive is a very insecure tense. It is so insecure that sometimes the first, second and third person singular hide under the same conjugation. (Example, che io ti porti... you can also say che tu mi porti and che lui ci porti...) It follows verbs such as volere, credere, pensare, essere possibile... + che:
- Voglio che tu mi dia una ragione/I want you to give me a reason
- Credo che non ci sia più pane/I believe that there is no more bread
Never hesitate to ask for help :) There are more subjunctive skills coming up...
Are the rules the same as in French? It looks very similar, but in French you use it all the time...
Terrific explanation of at least one common use of that pesky subjunctive! Grazie.
Why is "Do you want me to bring today's newspaper to you?" wrong? It is literally nothing more than a more formal wording of the same sentence.
185
Why is "do you want me to bring you the newspaper today?" wrong. I can see that if you were pedantic you might want to say today's newspaper today, but why would you bring yesterdays paper or even last weeks paper, and how do you get a hold of tomorrows paper today?
The phrase "di oggi" means "of today" not just "today". As for the other questions, you might have missed something in yesterday's paper or last week's and want it, so e.g. il giornale di ieri/yesterday's paper.
Inclusion of "the" makes it incorrect. Native English speakers wouldn't include it.
- 130
If I ask, I am not certain about the reply. So not indicative (porto) but subjunctive (porti)
