English Translation
Which is more complete: the first edition or the second?
This should be: Qual è più completa: la prima edizione o la seconda?
Qual è and not Quale è
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Good question. Should quale be fem for quale edizione, just wondering.
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It can be either. This is recognised by Treccani. As one example:
" quale [lat. qualis] (si può troncare sia davanti a voc., sia davanti a cons.) (pl. m. e f. quali)."
(Roughly, “quale: One can truncate it (to “qual”, as mentioned in other articles) both before vowels and consonants. The plural for both masculine and feminine is quali.”)
So what’s the determining factor? Generally I would say it comes down to ease of pronunciation. Try saying “Quale è” and it sounds a bit forced and requires a pause to separate the two “e/è” sounds. Being a flowing language, Italian does not like that.
In a sentence like that I would always use “qual è” to make it flow better. That doesn’t mean that “Quale è” is wrong as such, but it’s certainly a bit harder on the ears.
As an aside, this is a truncation, not an elision, so the second Treccani link above mentions that you shouldn’t add an apostrophe. Thus it should strictly be qual è and not qual’è… though in contemporary writing the latter form is not unknown. Which is, I think, why it’s mentioned in the article.
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Fantastic reply, mille grazie LuciusVorenusX!
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