First, I want to say a big “Thank you!” for the official Italian courses. I’m having a lot of fun with them so far.
Secondly, I want to point out something that confused me in the course. In Level 3 of Italian 2, there are two words introduced for “would like” – “desiderare” in Indicativo Presente and “volere” in Condizionale Presente. From what I know, you can build an interrogative clause in Italian simply by changing pronunciation (and adding a question mark in texts), so could the translation to something like “You would like” not always be either “Desideri” or “Vorrei”?
Hello! Yes, you’re right about the fact we could potentially use both “desiderare” and “volere” to say “to would like”, however, the more polite version when you go to a restaurant, for example, would be “desidera?/cosa desidera?” etc. However, I see your point and will definitely add the conditional of “volere” as an alternative, so the system won’t mark you wrong if you use that. Thank you very much for your input, it’s always useful to know what you guys think would make the course better! Matilde
I think I found one more thing in Italian 1, Level 9:
The English transation of “siete pronti per ordinare” lacks a “(plural)” tag to make it more clear. Otherwise, if one has to translate from English to Italian, I think they could either put “sei pronto”, “sei pronta” or “siete pronti” in the answer field for “are you ready to order?”.
Ciao di nuovo
Funny you mention that cause yesterday I was actually adding all the specifications to this kind of items. Unfortunately I can’t add specifications to items that trigger tapping tests, so instead I put “sei pronto” and “sei pronta” as alternatives for the plural form. This way when you’re prompted with the English form, the system accepts all those Italian translations. Thanks for pointing that out I suggest you log out and back in again to see if all the changes are implemented. And, please, do let me know if you find any other issue
Just a quick update: I’ve added those alternatives to the sentence “what would you like?”, “what would you like to eat?”, and “would you like a bottle or a glass?”. However, please note that using “vorresti…?” instead of “desideri…?” doesn’t quite work in Italian, as saying “desidero del latte” instead of “vorrei del latte” sounds kind of weird (it’s like you’re aspiring to milk hehe). As a result, for these latter items the system will still only accept “desiderare” when it’s a question and the conditional of “volere” when it’s a request. Hope that helps you
So, let’s say you were a waiter. You could both ask “cosa desideri?” or “cosa vorresti?”. The former is more polite (although note it’s still informal), whereas the latter is still very polite but maybe used slightly less frequently. Now, if you’re a waiter and you ask “cosa vuoi?” (what do you want) or even the formal way “cosa vuole?”, I, as a guest, would walk out straight away! (Although, I must say, a lot depends on the tone and the body language you use obviously).
On the other hand, if you are the guest, then you must use “vorrei”, not “desidero” or “desidererei”, because the verb desiderare has some sort of more abstract taste to it. Again, you wouldn’t use “voglio” (I want), as you wouldn’t in English, however I must admit I’ve had such experiences before when I was a waitress. It’s not pleasant
Ciao @PietroF, I’m sure @MatildeBC will reply to you soon, but I just wanted to say how well you had documented the issue (location, original and what you were suggesting). A brilliant example. Grazie! It will help improve the course.
Welcome to this thread and thanks for your feedback .
With respect to the sunshine haha, although what you’re suggesting is totally reasonable, when I say it out loud it doesn’t sound as natural as the other one (I guess it’d be the same if I said “there is THE chance that the sun will shine today” in English).
With respect to the proof, again, you’re right in saying it would probably be a more accurate translation, but when we use this expression for some reason it makes more sense to have it like that. I totally see your point though, and I see it might be confusing when learning deictics, so I’ve changed the English for it to “this doesn’t prove anything”.
As per the self issue, I’m having problems reproducing your situation. Could you tell me which platform you’re using (web, Android, iOS)? I’ll put all the items in brackets as alternatives so you should be able to type that without being marked wrong. Could you log out and back in again and let me know if that’s fixed?
Thank you very much again for your suggestions… “my precious!”
I completely understand your reasoning for “la possibilità / a chance” - I guess I will just have to remember that “c’è la possibilità …” sounds better!
Ottimo
I logged out and back in (web version) and it’s fine now…
@MatildeBC
Ciao Matilde,
I have another couple of entries that I think may need additional alternatives…
Italian 4 - Level 3 - Life and Death I like to go for a run and then take a shower mi piace andare a correre e poi fare la doccia
Shouldn’t “mi piace andare a fare una corsa e poi fare la doccia” also be accepted?
I won’t be surprised if you say “No” - it does seem rather long-winded.
(I keep getting marked incorrect because I learned “andare a fare una corsa” in one of the other levels! )
Italian 2 - Level 19 - Time and Space quand’è il tuo appuntamento? when is your date?
I would have thought that “quando è” could be used instead of the elided version, aren’t they both still commonly used?
I am only asking for these changes because I keep getting them wrong!
…and thanks as always!!!
So, I’ve added both your valid suggestions as alternatives to those items. Although, because they will always appear only as tapping tests, I’m not sure you’ll actually ever have the possibility to tap “fare una corsa” instead of “correre” and “quando è” instead of “quand’è”, if you know what I mean. I’m not sure you’ll ever be given three buttons saying “fare”, “una”, “corsa”, that is. It’ll be interesting for me to actually know if that’d be the case, so if you don’t mind giving that a go and letting me know, I’ll be very grateful.
That is an interesting point about alternatives that I have found. Either is accepted in typing tests but in tapping, one is ‘prompted’ to remember the original.
Had both versions been given (separated by a comma) then too many words would have been offered in a tapping test (even thought only one version is needed), but there is the risk that a third mix & match alternative might have been selected which would then be marked as wrong. So wise decision.
Something happened the way the website works. Now in Italian 3 I need to fully type “il loro (la loro; i loro; le loro)”. Could you check it, please? (a few days ago it accepred “il loro”)
Matilde
I suggest you log out and back in again to see if all the changes are implemented. And, please, do let me know if you find any other issue 
(Although, I must say, a lot depends on the tone and the body language you use obviously).
)
