Vorrei che tu venissi a lavorare per me.

Why is this in imperfect subjunctive. Does vorrei che tu venga… not work?
Grazie

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Welcome! Questions about the congiuntivo are always interesting. For me the “che” tells me subjunctive imp (…would come) but yes, venga also seems to fit. I’m sure there’s a better explanation, just adding my two cents worth.

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I think that after “vorrei” “venissi” is obligatory.

“Voglio che sia ma vorrei che fosse” , but maybe this rule is too simple

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In the corpus, the past subjunctive is in the vast majority, but we also have “Io vorrei che qualcuno lo chieda a Tom.”

My hypothesis is that it’s a matter of nuance: if “vorrei” expresses a wish (maybe unrealistic) you use the past subjunctive, but if it’s a polite request you can use the present.

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Mille grazie, MRgK and Morbrorper. Un madrelingua confirms that after the Conditional the Past Subjunctive (congiuntivo imperfetto) must be used.

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Treccani agrees:

https://www.treccani.it/magazine/lingua_italiana/domande_e_risposte/grammatica/grammatica_1061.html

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Nice to hear that my little helper “voglio che sia ma vorrei che fosse” is indeed valid.

Btw, something like that is in German called “Eselsbrücke”, literally a bridge for a donkey.
Unfortunately, I could not find a good translation:
Both English and Italian seem to have only the rather prosaic “mnemonica” / “mnemonic”.

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