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- "Mangia la pasta quando vuoi."
37 Comments
780
As we have not met the imperative yet we should not be penalised. Also, this can lead to obesity.
"You eat" (informal, singular) is "mangi." "Mangia" would be a polite form of "you eat", but if you're being polite you don't use the informal form "vuoi." "Mangia" is also the informal imperative of "mangiare," and that evidently is what is meant here.
So, shouldn't it be "mangia la pasta quando vuole"? doesn't the last verb match with the first one?
I don't think so. The sentence is broken into two parts, or phrases, by 'as much as'. The second part of the sentence stands on its own, and could simply be in present tense, as in
you want an apple = vuoi una mela
Yes but, like, if you want to treat someone as Lei you need to conjugate all the verbs as Lei, don't you? I'm not sure, but in Portuguese verbs work a lot like in Italian, and it's a rule to us... that's why I have this doubt
I don't think you quite get my meaning yet. Viaggiatore indicates the imperative form for second person plural for mangiare is "mangia" ... seems to be the case here:
"IMPERATIVE/IMPERATIVO"
Presente
—
mangia
mangi
mangiamo
mangiate
mangino
taken from:
http://italian.about.com/library/verb/blverb_mangiare.htm
Also, this site shows the swap of the second and third person forms in imperative for 'are' verbs:
"the tu and voi forms are identical to their corresponding present indicative forms, except for the tu form of -are verbs, which add -a to the root: domandare > domanda" ...
taken from:
http://italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa011900a.htm
So, the first part of the sentence appears to command you to eat ... I guess:
mangia! = eat!
(I'll bet that is common in Italy!)
... but, the second half of our sentence appears to be present tense for "you want".
- 1042
Yes, and I finally got it. I spoke to a friend who is a native speaker, and she explained exactly this way, it is like a command. Thanks for the clarification.
I don't understand quite why Duolingo would introduce a complex concept like this with no warning or explanation.
Traveler, thanks for the explanation. "He eats the pasta when you want." was accepted, but did not feel right to me. Now I understand the meaning of the sentence.
- 444
Why "he eats the pasta whenever you want" is not right? Sounds to me that an order like "eat the pasta" is directed to "you" and not "he"....
"Mangia" is an imperative form, directed to "you". http://italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa011900a.htm
One other permutation that should be correct, "he eats the meal whenever you want"
The sentence used pasta, rather than pasto, though, so meal would be incorrect.
I understand that mangia can be either 2nd person imperative or 3rd person present. So why can't we use the second meaning and translate the above as He eats pasta whenever you want (him to).
That's one of the alternatives it offered when I screwed it up. Maybe that added that because of your comment, though.
It's weird to make you lose over the translation of a speech element they haven't covered yet (imperative), especially when it could be translated using elements they have already covered.
I screwed it up, but I put, interestingly,
'She eats pasta whenever you do'
douLingo appropriately indicated my only mistake was 'do' should have been 'want'.
No, if I recall "mangi" would be "you eat." Here it's one of two things, either command form ("You, eat the pasta when(ever) you want") or a kind of weird "He eats the pasta when you want (him to)."
I'd say it's useless discussing possible meanings of this sentence (though this is interesting). We just have to write in Italian what we hear.
Doesn't "Eat the paste when you please" sound way better? It flagged as error.
I want to take a second to tha k doulingo for validating my pasta eating habits. Thank you, you handsome owl.
Formal "You eat pasta when you want" should also be acceptable shouldn't it ?
Once again please may we have guidance and consistency to enable us to know when something is actually different rather than just wrong
Apparently, "Tu mangia!" is the imperative form of mangiare.
How many people does the sentence address? Mangia is formal for he, she or it eats. Vuoi is familiar for he, she or it eats. It sounds like the speaker is ordering person one to eat pasta whenever person two wants person one to eat pasta. Maybe this is a line from a movie scene in an Italian prison. I can't see ordering someone to eat as much as they want.
Two examples contradict each other. Here "Mangia la pasta quando vuoi": this is the 'tricky' irregular Italian imperative which is different from the 2nd person singular "mangi". Yet a little further down this exercise with "Eat as much pasta as you want" it suddenly has to be "mangi". Come on DL, some consistency please!
