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I read in a paper the (end of a) sentence

... ma ha ammesso come la sua sfida principale, quella di aumentare il tasso di crescita di lungo periodo dell'Italia, sia ancora tutta da giocare.

I understand that ‘la sua sfida principale’ is the subject of ‘sia’ in the relative proposition ‘come la sua sfida principale sia ancora tutta da giocare’. Is it indeed the case and can we say in an interchangeable way the following?

... ma ha ammesso che la sua sfida principale, quella di aumentare il tasso di crescita di lungo periodo dell'Italia, sia ancora tutta da giocare.

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  • The second phrase sounds better.
    – linuxfan says Reinstate Monica
    Commented Mar 23, 2022 at 13:42
  • 1
    No reason to use come, unless you are specifically speaking of the way of doing something.
    – DaG
    Commented Mar 24, 2022 at 9:41
  • @DaG both ways are correct, even if different in their meaning; the point is whether the challenge is yet to be faced ("che", we don't know when), or how ("come", no matter when); without a further context, both meanings can be considered equally valid.
    – musicamante
    Commented Mar 26, 2022 at 5:02

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Both sentences are correct – and basically interchangeable.

As referenced in Treccani, conjunction come can be either temporal or declarative.

  1. Cong. temporale. Significa «appena che, quando». [...]
  2. Cong. dichiarativa, col valore di che. [...]

I rule out the temporal use in the OP sentence, as the main clause cannot stand without an object, and a temporal sentence would use the indicative mood:

Ha ammesso <che cosa?> *quando la sua sfida *sia ancora tutta da giocare.

The Corriere dictionary adds a possible comparative use:

  1. Con valore comparativo-relativo, il modo in cui [...]

But this would also require the indicative mood (and even then, it wouldn't make much sense):

Ha ammesso *il modo in cui la sua sfida *sia ancora tutta da giocare

So this leaves us with the declarative use:

Ha ammesso come/che la sua sfida sia ancora tutta da giocare.

Meaning: "They admitted (that) their challenge still stands."

Corriere also adds that in its declarative use, come is more descriptive than che. So the version with come might have a slightly different nuance. Personally, I perceive them as completely equivalent.

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