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Basic Italian question (again)

  Tags: Idiom | Italian
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
bobby1413
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 4199 days ago

32 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 1 of 7
15 July 2013 at 12:15am | IP Logged 
Making good progress at the moment - thanks everyone! It's all bitty, but it's coming
together slowly.

Basic question:

I want to say "You can do that now?" in Italian.

So I wrote:

"Può fa quello adesso"

This translates as "It can do that now"? Obviously because that ending is for
It/he/she/you. Is this still correct though, does that mean "You can do that now?"

Or do I have to write: "LEI Può fa quello adesso"
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Romanzo
Diglot
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United States
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15 posts - 23 votes
Speaks: Italian, English*
Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, French

 
 Message 2 of 7
15 July 2013 at 1:29am | IP Logged 
Remeber after a conjugated verb you need the infinitive so it would be

puo fare quello adesso or lei puo fare quello adesso.

However, instead of saying puo fare quello adesso I would say ce la puo fare
adesso
.

In Italian the construction ce la faccio means 'I can do it', and the verb can
obviously change so if you want to ask someone if they can manange to do something you
can ask ce la fai?.

Here is a good link to a blog that describes the ce la fare phrase in Italian.
Ce la fare post

Also don't worry about having asked a question (again), keep asking because we are all
here to learn.
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bobby1413
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 4199 days ago

32 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 3 of 7
17 July 2013 at 4:59am | IP Logged 
Just to clarify then:

If you use a verb, but it is Conjugated - as in, it's in the form of I, He, She, It,
We, etc...

and that is followed by ANOTHER verb - then the second verb is always the long,
standard version.

E.g.:

Vorrei fare - I would like to do ... NOT   Vorrei faccio ?


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Cabaire
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5600 days ago

725 posts - 1352 votes 

 
 Message 4 of 7
17 July 2013 at 5:41am | IP Logged 
Yes, after a conjugated verb, you use the "basic form" of a verb as a complement. In the same way you won't say in English "he can does".
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Rykketid
Diglot
Groupie
Italy
Joined 4834 days ago

88 posts - 146 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, English
Studies: French

 
 Message 5 of 7
18 July 2013 at 9:29pm | IP Logged 
Hello!

I'm afraid "può fa quello adesso" is not correct.

"It/he/she/you(formal) can do that now?" is "lo può fare?"

it's fare because you need the infinitive form after the modal verb
potere. Lo is much better than quello. Lo is a so-called pronome oggetto.

As for "you can do that now", it's "lo puoi fare adesso?".

"Ce la fai?" has a different nuance, it's used when someone seems to have some problems
in doing something, it's more similar to "can you deal with that?"/"can you cope with
that?".

Anyway, this website can help you with verb conjugations:

http://www.wordreference.com/conj/ITverbs.aspx?v=avere

If you have any other question, don't hesitate to ask!

Edited by Rykketid on 18 July 2013 at 9:31pm

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bobby1413
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 4199 days ago

32 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 6 of 7
18 July 2013 at 11:16pm | IP Logged 
REALLY REALLY helpful!

Thank you :-)
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Rykketid
Diglot
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Italy
Joined 4834 days ago

88 posts - 146 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, English
Studies: French

 
 Message 7 of 7
18 July 2013 at 11:58pm | IP Logged 
You're welcome ;)


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