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- Topic: Italian >
- "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.
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.
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
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.
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!