"Bonvolu ŝuti iom da sukero en mian kafon."
Translation:Please pour some sugar into my coffee.
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That's a grammatical sentence, but means something else. Whenever you have the preposition en, you need to make the noun phrase after it accusative if you want the 'into' meaning.
Bonvolu ŝuti iom da sukero en mia kafo. = 'Please pour some sugar (while you're) in my coffee.' (Not specified what you'll be pouring the sugar into.)
Bonvolu ŝuti iom da sukero en mian kafon. = 'Please pour some sugar into my coffee.'
Of course, the en mia kafo version describes an extremely implausible request. Here's a pair where both meanings are very plausible:
La infanoj kuras en la domo. = 'The kids run (and they are) in the house.' (They're in the house the whole time they're running; they don't come in from outside.)
La infanoj kuras en la domon. = 'The kids run into the house.'
Dankon pro via respondo. So I can assume that something similar happens with:
Li saltas sur la tablo (He jumps on the table)
Li saltas sur la tablon (He jumps onto the table)
Am I correct?
If you remove a preposition, you add an "n": ŝuti sukeron al en la kafo
"al en" estas ĝusta sed ne ofta nek bela, tial oni forigas "al" kaj aldonas non: ŝuti sukeron en la kafon
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"Verŝi" is for liquids, and "ŝuti" is for non-liquids. (For an easy mnemonic, I remember that one verŝas vinon but ŝutas sukeron.)
The verb after "bonvolu" has to be in the infinitive form. See my comment on a similar question here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8842728
bonvolu ŝuti = ŝutu bonvole iom... > bonvole ŝutu iom da sukero en mian kafon > bonvolu, ŝutu...
All are as polite and grammatical correct as "bonvolu ŝuti..." which is the most frequent.
If you wanted to use the imperative (command-form) of ŝuti -- and you still wanted to be polite about it -- you would have to change the word for "please" to an adverb. So you could say "Bonvole ŝutu iom da sukero..." This is a less common form but you do come across it.
You would have to change "Bonvolu" to "Bonvole". "Bonvole ŝutu iom da sukero en mian kafon" would be OK. You can't have two imperatives in the same sentence, except in a sentence telling someone two do more than one thing, such as, "Go to your room and tidy it!".
Although word-for-word, the English translation is correct, we don't usually use "pour" for small amounts. We'd say "Please put some sugar into my coffee." I think this is one of those instances where it is better to translate the meaning, rather than the individual words, but I must admit I have not tried using "put" here.
Shouldn't "Please add some sugar ..." be accepted? After all in english, you don't pour sugar into the cup, you add it, or throw it inside.
I think "Please put some sugar in my coffee" would be the most natural English expression, but I haven't tried it here, so I don't know if it would be accepted.
Woe is me! I suppose it I was asking for too much when I hoped that Esperanto wouldn't do exactly what distresses me most about English: Using one suffix for three different meanings. Just as English adds an S (or 'S - there is no difference in sound) to the end of words to imply either 1)possession (with exceptions) 2)plural (with exceptions) or 3)contracted "is"; Esperanto now uses the N suffix for 1)direct object (with exceptions) 2)directional movement and 3)replace prepositions. Sigh... I can cut my disappointment with a knife...
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That’s not all: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/9650731/When-to-use-the-n-ending
I also had hoped for a perfect language, with entirely regular everything. However, it is less messy than English and usually (but not always) it is more logical.