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- "Voglio che tu mi dica la ver…
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The English translation is awkward at best and I doubt that it'd be said by a native. It's too literal. 'I want you to tell me the truth' is what people would say.
No, it's not incorrect, it's just that the subjunctive is not used in English very often. But it's not technically wrong.
Or indeed many of the other nations around the world for whom English is a first language. Like England.
AnnaGuaGua, it's impossible for anyone to comment on this if you don't clearly state what it is that concerns you about the sentence. Users aren't mindreaders.
"I want that you tell me the truth" is not something that anyone in England would say
Brenda, I totally agree with you regarding the english translation. That said, what it should help you/us all remember more easily is how italian structures it, meaning the words that Italian uses to express that idea, namely a subordinate clause introduced by ...that you.../che tu...and a subjunctive. If you translate the english sentence you correctly cite below using the very same words into Italian you won't be expressing it as an Italian would, you'll sound like an English speaker trying to speak italian. My point being we're all trying to learn Italian, not English.
My problem is not with the Italian sentence! I completely understand it. I am fluent an Spanish and that's how we would say it too! My problem is with the English version because their literal translation does not work and we should not be marked wrong for something that in english to us English speakers makes no sense!
Brenda, you have a very valid point. My remark then would be more appropriate to native english speakers who object to DL's translation, since as I said, the manner in which DL renders it, should help native English speakers remember how Italian speakers would express that idea.
While I want to learn English!:-) Is "I want you tell me the truth" decent? Thanks!
yes because it divides the sentence into indicative and subjunctive. Otherwise both phrases would be indicative. like: I want more pie. I want the truth.
"Dica" is not indicative, is subjunctive, so without "che" would be understood anyway; and I suppose it could be said by some English fan accustomed to use English words (badly pronounced) instead of proper Italian ones.
I am utterly grateful for my language already having a subjunctive mood and I not having to learn it... it looks difficult! <3 Romance <3
1795
I understand the subjunctive nature of this better if I render it as "I want that you should tell me the truth." That introduces a subjunctive mood ("should") into the statement. But tell me: Does all this subjunctiveness have an effect on Italian culture itself?
I have learned that "should" and "would" after "that" fit for Italian conditional mode, not for conjunctive mode. About effect on culture: of course as anything but I cannot point what. We common persons think as we speak, and it is ormal to misunderstand each others, especially if one presumes being speeching the same language of others just because the words fit a same dictionary. Swiping away a part of a language as a grammar structure could provoke to develop telepathy which is what really allow the final step from signs to meaning, but languages with their structures exist because we people are weak in understanding!
I note that the first, second and third person singular are always the same for the subjunctive mood, so can I assume that we always need to use the pronoun, e.g. 'io dica', 'tu dica', 'lui/lei/Lei dica', to avoid the ambiguity?
