"Mangia la pasta quando vuoi."
Translation:Eat pasta whenever you want.
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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?
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.
- 1117
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)."
Once again please may we have guidance and consistency to enable us to know when something is actually different rather than just wrong
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!
I want to take a second to tha k doulingo for validating my pasta eating habits. Thank you, you handsome owl.
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.
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.
Given that the hints state that "mangia" is meant as the formal "you eat", I don't understand why "You eat pasta whenever you want" is not being accepted
So confused and even after all yr explainations (thank you!) i actually think i need to go back to English classes to learn basics. 1st 2nd 3rd person/ conjunctions/ imperitives and other terms that im ashamed to admit im struggling with its complexity! FYI My better half is italian so i have now had an explanation as to why my answer ' you eat pasta all the time' was not accepted - (despite him initially saying this was correct) but basically i know i will still get it wrong!