56 Comments
Why doesn't this sentence use the congiuntivo? Shouldn't this sentence be "Non so se lui abbia un cavallo" ?
I was thinking the same thing. I realize they don't want us using that mood yet, but it is just going to be that much more confusing when they give us a similar sentence in the future and expect us to use it when before they had us not use it.
Indeed, it would be more correct. Anyway, people sometime say this sentence using the present form. For example, Roman accent doesn't make much use of congiuntive and conditionals, unless it is really necessary :) just FYI anyway
Strictly, in "proper" English, 'if' is only used in conditional sentences (e.g. 'I won't go IF it rains') and whether is used if there is no condition at all ('I don't know WHETHER I'll go'). In this sentence, therefore, whether is the strictly correct, formal translation, however, in everyday speech the words are interchangeable and in reality 'if' is dominant.
There is no such thing as proper english, there is only "uptight twat" English, which is in no way more correct than the English non-uptight-twat people actually speak, so please stop being a prescriptivist. (coming from a linguistics major)
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Well Seb, speaking as another linguistics grad,(!?) it is always good to have different registers of language politely pointed out. Anyway, I think you mean no more or less valid - the standard grammar books however will make the difference.
Yes, because we all know there's a unanimous anti-prescriptivist consensus in linguistics.
Well I wasn’t going to consider what you said, but since you are a linguistics major I think that does change everything, really.
I feel like a more (or at least equally) correct English translation would be "I do not know WHETHER he has a horse"
To me that sounds less correct. You might say "I do not know whether he has a horse or not."
Where did you learn English? Different places have different dialects, so maybe that's just a regional thing. To me, that sounds less correct.
I'm from Tennessee. The way I would say this type of thing would be "I don't know if he has a horse", "I don't know whether he has a horse or not" or perhaps "I don't know whether or not he has a horse", but that last one would be slightly weirder sounding.
That's true, if you're going to say "whether" then you have to include both possibilities.
Nope, you can say "or not" after whether, but it's not necessary, and stylistically often better without it.
Why does it translate as : I don't know if he's a horse? Lui ha means he has, not he is. He's means he is...
I think it's either wrong or a really confusing abbreviation from "he has" to "he's".
Yes that's a really terrible use of that contraction. For anyone who doesn't know, contractions of "to have" should only be used when "to have" is a helping verb, with very few exceptions.
That is hilarious. While "he's" could be used as a contraction of "he has" in some contexts e.g. "he's made many such errors", this is not one of them.
Yeah. We've a lot of uses for that style of contraction, and I know that the style "He's/she's/one's/you've/y'all've/they've/we've/it's/I've GOT X." is very common. Also, "He's made many (of) such errors." is perfectly fine as a sentence; I and many other speakers that I have heard, have used that structure before.
It's a long-standing bug in Duolingo that thinks that "has" can always contract to " 's ". It's something the programmers put in, not something the course editors can control.
oh, I'm sorry! I thought "si" was also used in Italian... :/ then, out of curiosity, does the accent in "sì" (yes) distinguish it from something else? It does in Spanish... "sí" (yes) and "si" (if).
Yes. "Si" in Italian is the reflexive pronoun (which in Spanish is "se"). Here are the correspondences: Italian | Spanish Sì Sí Se Si Si Se
I'm sorry if I sounded rude in my first comment.
Thanks for your response! Yes, I have to say, I was a little taken aback by that comment at first, but it's OK.
I'm pretty sure I will need this phrase a lot when I am in Rome in a few months. Won't be sure if any of the people there have a horse.
Lo = it.
Then the difference is like "I don't know it" and "I don't know". In other words, there's not much difference.
There is clearly something wrong here. Correct translation is at the top of these comments but it keeps telling me "I do not know if he's a horse".
He's had too much too drink. "He has" can also be contracted, but we wouldn't when it could be confused with "he is". Duolingo's program algorithm probably doesn't know when it is okay and when not.
why is it wrong to omit "I " in translation and say "Don't know if he has a horse". I would omit it in Italian too.
- 2008
Because the subject pronouns are optional in Italian but mandatory in English.
Because "lo" is it, and you don't have to say it, because you already say "if he has a horse", it is the substitution of "if he has ..."
If not, you would say "I do not know it if he has a horse". The it is not necessary.
- 2008
In Italian, verbs conjugate uniquely to the subject pronoun. Io, tu, lui/lei, noi, voi, and loro all have their own verb conjugations. So very often, it is not necessary to include the subject pronoun. The conjugation of the verb tells you who the subject is.
English uses do-support with its verbs for things like emphasis ("I'm telling you, I do know the answer!"), negation ("I do not think this is a good idea."), and questions ("Do you want to go to the movies?").
Italian does not do this. But like English, it does put the negation before the main part of the verb:
I do not know
vs
Non so
The rest of the sentence is word-for-word how we would say it in English:
Non so se lui ha un cavallo.
(I do) not know if/whether he has a horse.
- 2008
We have different ideas of what constitutes "all that stuff". It takes me 2 minutes to type it up. Not much time at all.
The verb conjugation is incorrect. The phrase indicates doubt. It should be 'abbia' instead of 'ha'
I know that he has a horse. You guys didn't know that. Just like Donald Trump always A catch .....................................................................................................
I'm so much happy and excited, that have learned so many words (or it only seems to me). Really I'm very-very grateful for the opportunity of studying l'Italiano with such a program. It is cool and gives a lot of motivation.
- 2008
Because the team didn't code it in. Because it's not mainstream. Because it's archaic.
Although I'm fairly new to Italian, I'm not sure how this can translate to "is a horse" rather than "has a horse". If there is another translation or mood that creates this new meaning, it should have been clarified prior to this lesson.
- 2008
If Duo told you it's "is a horse", then that's wrong. It glitches sometimes.
At first I read this as Non so si lui è un cavallo (I just woke up, okay?) and all I could think of was Jean
- 81
Completely wrong translation here DL. Please amend it before it causes confusion. Other comments explain the error.
