Originally Posted by
PWMTrav
That's up to him. I provided a complete sentence, I'll let OP figure out if they want to shorten it.
As far as scontrino vs ricevuta, it's more complicated than that. Coloquially, everyone I know uses them rather interchangeably. One example (of my understanding) of the distinction is that the slip from a register (what we call a receipt in the US) is a scontrino, while the credit card sales slip would be a ricevuta - and you'd often receive both. When you swipe a card for a service, my understanding is that it's not wrong to use either word. In any case, that's a distinction that a tourist need not be concerned with if we're going with short phrases versus full sentences. Just my understanding of things, could be wrong. I think you're correct in the distinction between large and small purchases, but small purchases may also produce both. FWIW, I've always used "ricevuta" since that's what I was taught.
I'm taking an advanced language course right now at the University of Perugia. We have a, "Piazza Italia," where students post their language questions, and we help each other. Eventually one of the professors signs in and gives a definitive answer. I posed the question, what is the difference between scontrino and ricevuta. I didn't get an answer from the professor yet, but the student who is clearly the most fluent in the class (This is a language level class where the next level is to get a PhD in Italian language) said that scontrino is the "check."
As in English, you ask for the check, or lo scontrino. Then you pay lo scontrino. Then you get a ricevuto, or receipt, proving that you paid the scontrino. So, scontrino is check, ricevuto is the receipt. Subtle.
"Se non sbaglio si dice "la ricevuta". Mi sembra che la ricevuta sia il check, il documento di pagamento, mentre lo scontrino sia il check preliminare. Si scrive su un mio libro italiano: "lo scontrino" e' biglietto di ricevuta che prova il pagamento". Spero di esserti utile."