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- "Ci vediamo domani?"
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878
"See you tomorrow" marked correct (22nd Feb 2019). "We see you tomorrow" marked incorrect. How/why vediamo changes from "we" to "I" when "ci" is put in front of it is a complete mystery...
'ci' translates roughly to "us" in this context.. vediamo is understood that you (the person and I am going to see) and I are the "we" who will see eachother tomorrow. Although I guess it would work for a group of people as well but "we see you tomorrow" is a pretty awkward way of saying that. Maybe a native Italian speaker will come along and tell us if 'ci vediamo' is used for groups as well as for two individuals. For instance, how would you close a meeting that will meet again tomorrow..
Shall is correct English for first person singular and plural , not 'will' . Hence 'shall we see each other tomorrow ' is actually better English than 'will we see each other tomorrow ' and it is certainly not wrong!
Even so, "shall" is a different verb tense (conditional?). I'm not good at this stuff but I think if it was "Shall we meet tomorrow?" it would be "Ci vedremo, domani?" Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
- 348
Shall implies futurity (determination, promise, or prophecy); will implies volition. There are subtle differences between when you use 'will' and 'shall,' and it's by no means accurate to say that 'will' is not first-person singular and plural in English - especially since every single native-speaker of English uses 'will' thousands of times a day to indicate a desire or plan to do a thing. We use 'shall' when we wish to say a bit more forcefully that something absolutely is going to happen. We use 'will' when we want to say a bit more forcefully that it's my desire and intention to do a thing.
Child: I will NOT go to bed! Parent: You SHALL go to bed - and right now!
It's a 'rule' almost not followed at all nowadays, certainly in ordinary speech, but here's Strunk and White (notice they are talking about formal writing, not spoken English - despite having as an example an apparently drowning person using formal written speech to invoke assistance): "Shall, Will. In formal writing, the future tense requires shall for the first person, will for the second and third. The formula to express the speaker's belief regarding a future action or state is I shall; I will expresses determination or consent. A swimmer in distress cries, "I shall drown; no one will save me!" A suicide puts it the other way: "I will drown; no one shall save me!" In relaxed speech, however, the words shall and will are seldom used precisely; our ear guides us or fails to guide us, as the case may be, and we are quite likely to drown when we want to survive and survive when we want to drown."
That example is interesting, To me, Atleast, "I shall drown!" seems to more imply it is the speaker's intention to drown, While "I will drown!" more implies the speaker is going to drown, Be it by their decision or not, Almost the opposite of the example used there.
"Shall" isn't a different conjugation of "Will", As you seem to be making it out to be, But rather a completely different would, Albeit with similar meaning. I feel it should work here, But so should "Will", Neither is more correct then the other, There are simply slightly different meanings.
It is a standard exit line meaning "See you tomorrow." "Literally means "We see each other tomorrow."
if 'i will see you in March' is ci vediamo a marzo.... then why can't this be 'i will see you tomorrow'
There's a question mark at the end, Thus this would have to be "Will I see you tomorrow?", If it was "Ci vediamo domani.", Which a period, It could be "I will see you tomorrow."
DL rejected "Do I see you tomorrow." and corrected it into "See you tomorrow?" I understand the last translation is more colloquial, but is mine really wrong or just less usual?
That sounds kinda weird in English, To me atleast, "Do I see you...?" to me implies either solely the present, I.E. "Do I see you right now", Or the Habitual, For example "Do I see you on Friday?" = "Will I see you every Friday?", Neither of which really works with "Tomorrow".
I can't seem to hear the difference between 'ci' and 'chi' - is there any difference in pronunciation or does one need to know from context which is being said?
- 936
"chi" is pronounced "key", "ci" is pronounced "chee". Italian is the opposite of English in this regard. The addition of the 'h' in Italian means the 'c' sound should be pronounced as a hard consonant.
"conchiglie" (pasta shells) is pronounced "con-keel-li-ay". "zucchero" (sugar) sounds like "zoo-ker-o". "cibo" (food) is pronounced "chee-bo". "cena" (dinner) is pronounced "chey-na". "ciao" (hello/bye) - sounds like "che-ow".
This short video explains it nicely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueia5n1LvY8
- 348
Why is the translation in the continuous (progressive) tense? Wouldn't that be 'Stiamo vedendo domani?' I would translate it as, 'Do we see each other tomorrow?'
English uses the Present Progressive tense in many cases where other languages would use the Simple Present, "Do we see eachother tomorrow?" doesn't really sound like proper grammar to me.
"Ci Vediamo", Literally "We see ourselves", Has been translated in other exercises to "(I'll) See You!", Which makes sense to me, But begs the question, Why isn't "See you tomorrow?" accepted here? Especially because in English "We're seeing eachother" would general be understood to mean "We're dating", Atleast where I come from, Which I don't feel is the intended meaning of this sentence.
- 346
I can not distinguish "chi" from "ci"! Does anyone have this issue. How do we know during a listening exercise like this?
Yes. In written English, a statement with a question mark is not a question. It's quite common to speak that way in many countries, though.
How do you mean, a statement with a question mark is not a question?
- 348
He might be referring to statements like, 'Boy, is it hot' which is grammatically a question (Is it hot, boy?) but is not really asking for information, but making a statement: it is hot. I'm just guessing, since in English, a question mark does indicate a question (at least as far as I can think of any examples) and the 'question' I just used as an example would not have a question mark, but an exclamation mark (Boy, is it hot!). There can be statements like, 'You're not going?' which while a statement, use intonation (in speech) or a question mark (in writing) to indicate that it's functioning as a question. But certainly as it's written, formaggiamente's remark is not true.
A statement with a question mark IS a question, Just not a normal sort of question, For example "We shall see eachother tomorrow?" implies it's established that we shall see eachother tomorrow, But the speaker is shocked by this information, And thus is asking to confirm it, While "Will we see eachother tomorrow?" simply implies the speaker does not know if we will see eachother tomorrow, And thus is asking to find out.
I thought that in English you would say: shall we see tomorrow? It sounds awkward to say each other
No, it would sound funny to say "shall we see tomorrow". See what?
"See" is a Transitive Verb, I.E. it requires an object, And obviously "Tomorrow" can't be the object as it's a period of time, Not something you can see, In some contexts you could use it without an object, If it's evident what would be seen by context, E.G. "What do you think is behind that door?" "I don't know, Shall we see?", But in most cases you'd need a direct object, Such as "Eachother".
