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- Topic: Italian >
- "Voi avete una zuppa."
70 Comments
744
I agree. I wrote it as above because I also didn't want to lose a heart, but it is not the way one would say it in English. 'You have soup', 'you have some soup', or 'you have a bowl of soup' are all more idiomatic English than the literal translation above. I think they should be accepted as well.
Although this certainly isn't a common phrase in English it is conceivable that one might say this in English. For example one might notice that a restaurant offers a soup on their menu and then state "You have a soup. Can you tell me more about it?". Granted if this were a question and not a statement it would probably be more intuitive as it would be a more common use case.
Spot on. Additionally, everyone needs to be less worried about how it's rendered into parlance English and focus on the Italian grammatical points that it's trying to teach.
Ultimately, you all are translating the phrase to say things that aren't necessarily intended to be said even in the Italian. You all think "una zuppa" means "a bowl of soup." If you frame that in your mind, you'll never actually learn the language. You'll be creating a new language of what's-suppose-to-be.
From a guy who has down 4.5 living languages and 3 dead languages, you are going to have to be far more open minded to how other languages relate things to us. You won't be able to do that if you are constantly hung up on the best sounding English. There is no such thing as objective translation, exemplified by google translate. If you first don't truly understand what the other is trying to communicate, then you have no idea how to translate that. Since you all don't have the context, the only measure of correctness here is: is it grammatically correct in English?
Guess what? Though it might not seems logical to you all, it is grammatically correct in English. In modern parlance it sounds weird, but it is grammatically correct.
As a professional language instructor, I must disagree with what you seem to be saying. It's all about what you can DO with the language- and how it actually functions to convey meaning in everyday life situations. I think duo would do well to list two translations- 1 marked "literal" and one marked "functional". .
Yes, but the translations are mainly made with the reports from the users, for the few I have understood, who would decide what is context and what literal? Who would be the superusers to do it? Because evaluating every single sentence, not only for its correctness, but also for different purposes, would be a huge work. Nobody is going to do it. Not even me. :D
From someone who is bilingual, it is far more important to be able to translate the functional meaning than the literal. Far too many people who think they know a lot of languages translate a lot of things very badly because they do not know they quite well enough.
The point being, if it could refer to a bowl of soup in Italian, then 'some soup' should be right. What everyone on here wants to know is whether in Italian that could not be right, not whether some other translation might be right.
And even closer to the point, it is not helpful at any level to tell people what they need or do not need to be worried about.
This is where doing extra work outside of DL is a must, especially reading things like magazines, newspapers, and books. Do not seek to learn by reading articles on the net, unless you know they are well written (good quality newspapers, academic papers, etc.).
Bravo Christopher!! i see that a lot "that is not the way to say it in English, it does not make sense" a lot of things did not make sense to me when i was trying to learn English, because i used to say the same thing,i used to think" English is backwards like "the red car" in spanish "el carro rojo" or a butterfly i would said what the butter has to do with a fly in spanish is la mariposa. so when i stoped thinking like that, then it was much easier for me.So I understand what you are saying.
502
I disagree very much. You are basically saying: "it doesn't matter what it means in English, you just need to learn the words". Users of Duolingo don't have this approach; we want to know how to actually TRANSLATE the words, and how Italian syntax compares to English.
In this question, for example, people aren't just saying "it shouldn't be "a soup"" just to be picky, we are genuinely confused whether this sentence ACTUALLY TRANSLATES as the rarely-used and very specific "a soup", or if it just refers to "a portion of soup", or "some soup".
844
No one would say this in English. Soup is kind of an implied plural in English. You could have a bowl of soup, a half liter of soup, a cup of soup, but not "a soup". It is like "gas". No one would say "you got a gas". Maybe this is particular to liquids in English.
The point in question is not "what's the best sounding English translation", but rather "isn't this translation also accurate". We do not typically use the article "a" for this sentence. As a result, we've posted as a means of ensuring that 1) we do understand the language we are learning, and 2) this logical answer can be accepted in the future.
Hi everyone, A few months ago before starting this lesson I created a table of all the relevant verbs of this lesson with conjugations to all the possible pronouns (to present tense, of course), I thought maybe some will be happy if I'll share it
English | verb | I | You | S/He | We | Voi | They |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
to be | essere | sono | Sei | è | siamo | siete | sono |
to have | avere | ho | hai | ha | abbiamo | avete | hanno |
to go | andare | vado | vai | va | andiamo | andate | vanno |
to do | fare | faccio | fai | fa | facciamo | fate | fanno |
can/(to be able to) | potere | posso | puoi | può | possiamo | potete | possono |
to come | venire | vengo | vieni | viene | veniamo | venite | vengono |
to want | volere | voglio | vuoi | vuole | vogliamo | volete | Vogliono |
to give | dare | do | dai | dà | diamo | date | danno |
to stay | stare | sto | stai | sta | stiamo | state | stanno |
to say | dire | dico | dici | dice | diciamo | dite | dicono |
to know | sapere | so | sai | sa | sappiamo | sapete | Sanno |
to see | vedere | vedo | vedi | vede | vediamo | vedete | vedono |
to eat | mangiare | mangio | mangi | mangia | mangiamo | magiate | mangiano |
to speak | parlare | parlo | parli | parla | parliamo | parlate | parlano |
to go out/to exit | uscire | esco | esci | esce | usciamo | uscite | escono |
to take | prendere | perndo | prendi | prende | prendiamo | prendete | prendono |
to be like/to please | piacere | piaccio | piaci | piace | piacciamo | piacete | piacciono |
to read | leggere | leggo | leggi | legge | leggiamo | leggete | leggono |
to finish | finire | finisco | finisci | finisce | finiamo | finite | finiscono |
to drink | bere | bevo | bevi | beve | beviamo | bevete | bevono |
to understand | capire | capisco | capisci | capisce | capiamo | capite | capiscono |
to arrive | arrivare | arrivo | arrivi | arriva | arriviamo | arrivate | arrivano |
to put | mettere | metto | metti | mette | mettiamo | mettete | mettono |
to write | scrivere | scrivo | scrivi | scrive | sriviamo | scrivete | scrivono |
to live | vivere | vivo | vivi | vive | viviamo | vivete | vivono |
to remain/to stay | rimanere | rimango | rimani | rimane | rimaniamo | rimanete | rimangono |
to know (a person) | conoscere | conosco | conosci | conosce | conosciamo | conoscete | conoscono |
to feel | sentire | sento | senti | sente | sentiamo | sentite | sentono |
to ask | chiedere | chiedo | chiedi | chiede | chiediamo | chiedete | chiedono |
to find | trovare | trovo | trovi | trova | troviamo | trovate | trovano |
to believe | credere | credo | credi | crede | crediamo | credete | credono |
to open | aprire | apro | apri | apre | apriamo | aprite | aprono |
to work | lavorare | lavoro | lavori | lavora | lavoriamo | lavorate | lavorano |
to think | pensare | penso | pensi | pense | pensiamo | pensete | pensono |
to call | chiamare | chiamo | chiami | chiama | chiamiamo | chiamate | chiamano |
to look | guardare | gudrdo | guardi | guarda | guardiamo | guardate | guardano |
to follow | seguire | seguo | segui | segue | seguiamo | seguite | seguono |
to become | diventare | divento | deventi | devente | diventiamo | diventate | diventono |
to enter | entrare | entro | entri | entra | entraimo | entarte | entrano |
to leave (behind) | lasciare | lascio | lasci | lasca | lasciamo | lasciate | lascano |
to bring | portare | porto | porti | porta | portiamo | portate | portano |
to decide | decidere | decido | decidi | decide | decidiamo | decidete | decidono |
to wait | aspettare | aspetto | aspetti | aspetta | aspettiamo | aspettate | aspettano |
to pass | passare | passo | passi | passa | passiamo | passate | passano |
to hold | tenere | tengo | tieni | tiene | teniamo | tenete | tengono |
to die | morire | muoio | muori | muore | moriamo | morite | muoiono |
to buy | comprare | compro | compri | compra | compriamo | compate | comprano |
to use | usare | uso | usi | usa | usiamo | usate | usano |
to remember | ricordare | ricordo | ricordi | ricorda | ricordiamo | ricordate | ricardano |
to live (in) | abitare | abito | abiti | abita | abitiamo | abitate | Abitano |
to cook | cucinare | cucino | cucini | cucina | cuciniamo | cucinate | cucinano |
Few comments: 1- Most of the verbs are from TinyCards (46 + bere that I think they forget to add to this lesson). 2 - I added comprare (to buy), uscire (to go out), abitare (to live in a house/region), and cucinare (to cook), because that some exercises in this chapter or the next one have them.
Good luck!
Usually with any kind of liquid you would never use "a". You would never say "I want a water" or "I have a soup" or "I drink a milk". If you wanted to indicated that it was only "one" of something you'd say "I want a bottle of water" or "I have a bowl of soup" or "I drink a glass of milk" or something along those lines.
507
A soup is theoretically correct english, but linguistically it does not sound right, and I've never heard anyone ask for A soup
I know - it is easy - that 'una' is an indefinite article which may (in many) cases be properly translated by 'a', but the question is - what does this sentence mean? In what situation would you use it? If you wanted to convey the same thing as would be conveyed in English by "You are having soup." would this be a possible way to do it.
Try this site. It gives conjugations and the best part is you don't have to know the infinitive. If you type "fa" it will show "fare" and all the conjugations. http://www.wordreference.com/conj/itverbs.aspx? Best wishes for a happy Duo journey.
When learning a language, you need an open mind. That's what I'm getting from these comments. Even more, I've also been taking Japanese in school and you need to keep other things in mind. The different culture and customs for one and the different ways you explain things. In Japanese, you don't have some words, and you can't just translate it literally. Because, then it will sound like you don't know the language. But, sense isn't the thing that you need to understand, too. The grammar is important and a sentence in Duolingo may not be used in real life, but you need to recognize the grammar in it. So, some of the amusing and some of the odd ones are just used so you can tell when to use them.
558
I wrote "you have a soup", which sounds daft to a native english speaker but even so it corrected me providing the answer "You all have a soup".
929
So I just got this wrong, but the 'correct' answer listed was not what I was expecting: "Y'all have a soup."
502
Very simple: your first sentence is plural (speaking to multiple people) and your second is singular (speaking to one person).
257
Please tell me why we are using avete for "have", what about the other verb for have (Io ho, tu ha, etc)?
As soon as i stopped trying to translate every sentence literally and set my mind to the fact i was learning a whole new language, it became a lot easier. I felt as if i was saying things back to front and missing words out but i stopped dwelling and picking on every little thing until i was completely stressed and confusrd and just went with it. I almost gave up but I am glad that i didn't. And now, although i find some of these comments very helpful, i try not to read too many. If its going good, I MOVE ON. Practice makes perfect... I hope.