Mi prometti che non mi lascerai mai?

English Translation

Will you promise me that you will never leave me?

“Will you promise me” would be “mi prometterai” ?

1 Like

I read it as “Promise me that…” which makes prometti work, at least I think so.

Right. I am just trying to match Italian to English. Maybe here it is not a big deal, but someone might think “mi prometti” is “will you promise”. Or it is entirely possible that Italians would never say “mi prometterai”?

It is just a slightly different use of the tenses.
Literally “Do you promise me …?”

If you ask" Will you promise me …" then you normally mean “Will you promise me now …” and not “Will you promise me sometimes in the future …” so the use of the future tense in English is not mandatory in other languages.

Also in Germnan one would use normally present tense for this question: “Versprichst Du mir …” Future “Wirst Du mir versprechen …” would be only used, if e.g. you intend to give the other person a few hours to think about it.

According to my experiences this question here is one, where the answer is expected immediately :mending_heart:.

Edit. Just by coincidence I found another example:

I’ll introduce you my brother.
Ti presento mio fratello.

Again, the implication is to do it now and again, also in German it would be present tense (ich stelle Dich meinem Bruder vor). But "At the party next Saturday, I’ll intrroduce you …) would be future tense in German and I guess also in Italian.

4 Likes

I’m wondering if will here is an indicator of will, as in “give me a hand, will you?”.

1 Like