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Commas, and jota
Italian and English punctuate differently. Italian literary prose readily accepts long sentences in which clauses are joined by commas, and a comma can mark a breath, a hesitation, or a change of voice. English editors tend to prefer shorter sentences, or a period or semicolon where Italian has a comma. Translators move constantly between the two systems, and when an author uses a comma for effect — as Ada does — the decision becomes literary, not technical. Jota is a classic dish of Trieste: a thick soup of beans, sauerkraut and potatoes, often with pork, shaped by the city's Central European past. It is the kind of food a Triestine family serves a guest it wants to keep at the table. The grammar of this lesson is the agreement of the past participle. After lo, la, li, le and ne, the participle agrees: le ho portate, li ho visti, ne ho tolte sette. After indirect pronouns and after che, it does not: le ho scritto, le virgole che ho tolto.