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I was talking to my Italian Professora and we were joking about my attempts to flirt with a person. However, when I told her about the line Tu non sei il sole ma fate la mia mattina (You are not the sun, but you make up my morning); she said my Italian grammar was incorrect. Before she could offer an explanation, she had to charge off to a meeting. My Italian friend does not know why its wrong, and I can't tell either. Should fate be tu fai? Is that my issue?

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    Welcome to Italian.SE!
    – Charo
    Feb 2, 2016 at 6:23
  • Thanks, @Charo! As a current student learning Italian, I feel this website will be perfect for me in the long run.
    – Veer Singh
    Feb 3, 2016 at 1:47
  • It's a lousy line, by the way.
    – magma
    Feb 3, 2016 at 19:44
  • @magma Each to their own opinion!
    – Veer Singh
    Feb 3, 2016 at 19:45
  • @DigitalVeer ahah right! just willing to help. but if it works for you, that's fine.
    – magma
    Feb 3, 2016 at 19:47

1 Answer 1

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I was talking to my Italian Professora...

First of all I should warn you that the most used feminine form of "professore" is professor-essa; "professor-a" is not incorrect, but less usual.

As for your sentence,

Tu non sei il sole ma fate la mia mattina,

from a grammatical point of view the problem is what you've understood: you begin the sentence using tu... sei (singular), but conclude it using (voi) fate (plural), as if you're referring not to the same person but to several people or also to the same person but with a less informal tone. Unfortunately both pronouns (tu, voi) are translated by the English word "you".

Moreover, I think you're attempting a literal translation of an idiomatic sentence (or are you referring to Elvis' song?) by saying «fate(/fai) la mia mattina»: if you're referring to the action of the Sun and to the fact that the person you're talking to warms your heart and makes you happy, note that we usually say:

illumini il mio giorno

or

illumini il mio cielo.

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    Thanks, this really helped! I also like the phrase "illumini il mio giorno" over "fai mia mattina". Definitely will accept
    – Veer Singh
    Feb 2, 2016 at 5:40
  • @DigitalVeer You're very welcome! And thanks to you too! :)
    – mrnld
    Feb 2, 2016 at 5:43
  • Potresti prenderti un attimo per leggere questa domanda sul Meta? Grazie mille!
    – Charo
    Nov 2, 2018 at 17:52

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