Subjunctive and conditional in an extension request
A fourth-year student is drafting an email to Professor Elena Rossi to request a two-week extension on a 3,000-word tesina. The deadline is 15 May. The draft contains: «Se avrei più tempo, potrei rifinire la bibliografia. Qualora mi darebbe una proroga, glielo sarei molto grato. Le chiedo scusa per il disturbo e La ringrazio anticipatamente.» The student wants formal register and has been told by a friend that the subjunctive is 'too formal', so she is considering replacing «Qualora mi desse» with «Se mi dà». She has 20 minutes and must produce a corrected version plus a short justification for each change. The professor has previously asked students to use «Lei» consistently and to avoid calques such as «Mi scusi per il disturbo» when a more precise formula exists.
1. Identify and correct the grammatical errors in the draft, explaining each correction.
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There are three problems. (1) Se avrei più tempo is impossible in standard Italian: a hypothetical se clause takes the congiuntivo imperfetto, so Se avessi più tempo, potrei rifinire la bibliografia. The conditional potrei belongs in the main clause. (2) Qualora mi darebbe is wrong because qualora triggers the subjunctive, not the conditional: Qualora mi desse una proroga (or mi dia in a more immediate formal style). (3) glielo sarei molto grato is not idiomatic: grato takes di qualcosa, so the clitic should be gliene sarei molto grato, or simply Le sarei molto grato, which is the cleanest formal solution because the favour is already clear. A corrected draft is: «Se avessi più tempo, potrei rifinire la bibliografia. Qualora mi desse una proroga, Le sarei molto grato. La ringrazio anticipatamente.»
2. Should the student follow her friend's advice and replace «Qualora mi desse» with «Se mi dà»? Justify your advice with reference to register and grammaticality.
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Not as stated. Qualora mi desse is grammatically correct and appropriate in a formal email to a professor; the subjunctive is not 'too formal' here, it is required by qualora. If the student wants a less elevated tone, she must change the connector as well: Se mi dà una proroga, Le sarei grato is acceptable because se + present indicative presents a real possibility. What she must not do is mix registers by writing Qualora mi dà or Qualora mi darebbe. The friend's advice confuses formality with correctness. In a 20-minute exam answer, the safest solution is to keep one consistent formal register and to justify the choice, rather than to replace a correct subjunctive with an incorrect hybrid.