Hover a line for its translation; hover a word for its meaning. Tap 🔊 to hear it.
Generate a brand-new dialog on any topic, using this lesson's 0 vocab words — plus any words you add below.
Sign in to generate dialogues. It needs a pass — the first ten lessons of every course are free either way.
Saying the number that holds
The argument Alex wins in this scene is a particular one, and it is worth noticing that he wins it by being more pessimistic than his colleagues rather than less. Italian professional culture has a reputation abroad for optimistic scheduling, and the reputation is not baseless — but inside a firm the person who has been caught out once and says so is treated as having gained standing, not lost it. Avendo sottostimato una volta, non lo rifarei is a strong move precisely because it admits the earlier mistake out loud. What makes it work is the register. The concession comes first — pur essendo d'accordo — and the disagreement follows inside it, which is the shape Lesson 69's connettivi set up and which Italian argument relies on heavily. Serra's reply does the same thing in reverse: nonostante sia più brutto da dire concedes the cost before accepting the proposal. And his closing instruction, scriva anche cosa non si recupera, points at something that generalises well beyond this meeting: a plan that claims everything will be fine is read as a plan that has not been thought about. Writing down what you cannot do is, in this setting, the thing that makes the rest credible.