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- "Fai come vuoi."
150 Comments
Volere is the verb "to want", which could also be used as "to need" or "to wish" or "to expect". The English translation "Do as you please" really means "do as you wish" or "do as you want" here.
Generally, in English, you can omit the word "please" as it is just a polite addition. However, in "do as you please", you couldn't omit "please" and it still make sense, so it is likely to have a different meaning. It is not really acting as the word "please" but as the word "want". It is really the English language that causes this issue, using words meaning something else in place of something else!
I want - Io voglio You want - Tu vuoi He/She wants - Lui/Lei vuole We want - Noi vogliamo You want (plural) - Voi volete They want - Loro Vogliono
The "please" in "Do as you please" is the verb "to please", not the polite addition. A less confusing way of saying "Do as you please" would be "Do what pleases you" which is kind of like "Do what you want", but I don't think it's the best translation here. Grammatically, it is odd but still a common English phrase.
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My mother tongue is Turkish. I don't understand this explanation.
I wish I could copy and paste the text. Google translation would have helped me.
September 24, 2019
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As a native English speaker I assure you 'do as you please' is certainly used! It may be old fashioned, I'm currently 65, but a sentence such as 'I'm sure you'll do as you please anyway' is very common.
What +schiaffino89 said. Think of "come" as a simile. The same way you would use "like or "as" to compare two objects that would otherwise not be within the same desciptive pool (i.e: a baby and a button), is the same way you would use "come". "Come stai" (how are you? Though it can be seen as What are you like?). "Lei come la sua mamma" (she is like her mother)...
As a general point, I am a little surprised that the course notes for this section did not include tables of the present tense for regular verbs and also for the far from regular ones such as avere and volere which are also introduced here. I suppose all the information is there, spread over the individual sentences, but I feel that such a very odd verb as avere – which, if I have understood rightly, jumps from third-singular ha to first-plural abbiamo – would have been easier to grasp if its forms had been set out in full.
Well literally I would translate it as "You do like you want." But I believe a better translation from this would be "Do what you want" and is what most English speakers would say. Duo's translation is "Do as you please" which is also close to "Do what you want." It may not literally translate but I think this would be the best and most common occurrence of this sentence.
Here, like with english, it is an imperative sentence, so the beginning you can be left out. It is still there, but only implied. Examples would include, Go upstairs, Eat your chicken. One wouldn't say in English, You eat your chicken, or, You go upstairs. Although that still would be correct, we leave out the beginning noun. Here, you do as you wish would be correct, though, due to it being an imperative sentence where the noun is already known and implied, we can leave out the you.
come has a couple of meanings. As and as if. We couldn't use the latter due to the sentence being incorrect. (You) Do as if you want. So we use just the linking verb, as. (You) Do as you want.
Voui is want or wish. Both are correct. Please is the English subsituting words for politeness. Any three will work. Do as you wish, and Do as you want are correct litteral translations, but when said in English makes you sound rude. So we subsitute please inside for the objective of being polite. And due to being the you form of the verb, we add in the pronoun.
Firstly, 'you' is a personal pronoun, not a noun! Secondly, 'as' isn't a linking verb. It's not even a verb at all. Thirdly, 'do as you wish' and 'do as you please' can both be either rude or not rude, depending on how you say it. Moreover, 'please' here is a verb and is equivalent to 'wish' in this case and it's not the adverb 'please' that you are referring to! Finally and most importantly, your argument that the this sentence is an imperative is incorrect. In Italian you can omit the pronoun whenever you want; it doesn't make it an imperative sentence by omitting the pronoun. Every verb in Italian has an imperative conjugations for all but the first singular form. It just so happens that 'fai' is both the second person indicative and second person imperative form of 'fare' and hence this sentence can both be interpreted as a simple statement and as a command. You argue that, because like in English it's imperative, the beginning 'you' can be left out. But in English nor in Italian is this optional for imperative sentences. 'You go upstairs!' is not imperative. You're thinking of 'You! Go up stairs!', which is imperative. Neither in Italian is there a personal pronoun in the imperative form. However, in any other form the personal pronoun is optional. The personal pronoun is merely used to clarify or emphasize, otherwise it is almost always omitted.
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This is obviously an imperative sentence; the imperative (singular) takes the form of the 3rd person singular - so why isn't it "Fa come vuoi", instead of "Fai come vuoi"?
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Oh joy! This could be where i pack it in! I thought "come" meant how. Now i find out it means loads of things! HELP!
This sentence makes complete sense. Let me give you an example of where you could use it. Let's say a person is really pissing you off, they keep doing things you tell them not to. You get fed up with this and tell them that they can, "Do as they please." In other words, you are telling this person that you no longer care if they listen to you or not.
This sentence makes complete sense. Let me give you an example of where you could use it. Let's say a person is really pissing you off, they keep doing things you tell them not to. You get fed up with this and tell them that they can, "Do as they please." In other words, you are telling this person that you no longer care if they listen to you or not.
Present tense conjugation of the irregular Italian ARE verbs: Fare, Dare & Stare - http://iltavoloitaliano.com/learning_the_Italian_Verbs_Fare_Dare_and_Stare_in_the_present_tense/
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"Do what do you want", Is it right or wrong? Just English is not my mother language. This sentence in Italian is very difficult to translate. What the versions is yours? Thanks.
I translated sentence to Do as you want and it was marked as incorrect. All though i think i understand the stretch in the translation, i have personally used the words "do as you want in every day speech. The translation for vuoi is you want. do not understand why vuoi becomes please in this excercise
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I replied, Do How you Want... and was marked incorrect. My answer was a more exact pronunciation but was marked wrong.
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As I am Bulgarian, for me is strange "Do as you please." The better translations sound for me as "Do as you like." or "Do as you wish."
I translated it as "you do as you want" and it was correct, but I'm just wondering is there a differentiation in italian like in English between descriptive sentences like this and commands, for example "you do what you want" vs "do what you want" where the speaker is more clearly referring directly to the person giving a command (im sorry i don't know the exact linguist terms)
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