I have this passage; two MCs talking about what to do next after their picnic (his perspective). She's Italian. Google tells me that, in Italian, "Signor" is the common form of "mister", but "Signore" is a more formal version, up to and including the title "Lord". I want her to use the more formal, as a bit of banter. Have I done it correctly? Looking for feedback from Italian speakers. _______________________ It didn’t take long to cover the entire site, and soon they had seen as much as they could. “About half a kilometer that way is Neptun and Istra,” Marko offered, gesturing toward the northwest. “What are they?” “Hotels. Or one hotel merged from two old ones.” She looked at him curiously. “It’s a bit early in the day to get a hotel, isn’t it Signore Horvat?” Trapped. “What? Oh, no, according to my uncle there’s a good pub there. I thought we could get out of the heat and have a pint of beer.” Ha! Trap avoided! She looked at him blankly. “Uh-huh.” She held his gaze for a moment and said with a wry smile, “Well, if it’s beer you’re interested in, then I suppose we can get you what you want. Is it beer you’re interested in?” Uh-oh. “I… um… I’m interested in whatever lets me spend more time with you, my dear.” “Well played, Signore Horvat, well played.”
Not an Italian speaker, but I did have to research this when using these forms of address for an Italian based fantasy culture. https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/signor-vs-signore.1214015/ At its most basic, you use signor when a name or surname is involved (so it would be Signor Horvat in your example) while signore is used when it's not attached to a name ( like in "Sí, signore.")
Excellent, thank you. I just checked with a friend who is a native Italian speaker, and she told me to drop the 'e' but didn't explain why. Cheers. JD
