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- Topic: Italian >
- "She is young and I am old."
"She is young and I am old."
Translation:Lei è giovane ed io sono vecchio.
50 Comments
The answer without "lei" and "io" should be accepted (E' giovane e sono vecchio) ... And this is true for all the sentences
There is no indication that the speaker is masculine. Either vecchio or vecchia should be acceptable.
If there is no indication of masculine or feminine you need to use the masculine form. That's just how Italian works
In fact you can assume that the person who is talking is a woman. So "vecchia" should also be accepted.
Why do you need io here, " io sono vecchio " is correct while "sono vecchio" is not
I also didn't use "io" and it said i'm correct. Maybe because you use "ed" which facing the vowel sounds afterwards (like "an" in english)
Why is "Lei e giovana" not correct? It seems that the adjective "giovane" always has to be in this form and it does not change according to the object it is referring to. Why is that? Can you help?
195
In italian, nouns and adjectives that end with 'e' fit both genders. So, 'giovane' is used for both male and female.
You mean "e" vs. "ed"? "Ed" is used before words that start with vowels much like the English article "an". "E" is used in every other case.
- 1048
It's interesting that this exercise showed me two alternate correct Italian sentences, both using both pronouns, but one said ed io sono vecchio (as above), and one said e io sono anziana (not ed).
- 1048
Thanks for the response! Are you saying that ed is required with io, and e io is absolutely incorrect?
I looked it up to be certain.
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/80487
It's a little more complicated than "a" vs "an" in English.
- 124
In Italian, you can use "piccolo" and "grande" as synonyms for "giovane" and "vecchio". It's colloquial and a bit childish though. The most common sentence that you can hear this is "cosa vuoi fare da grande?", which is used to ask a child what he wants to do as a grownup.
- 1309
I put Lei è giovane e sono vecchio and was wrong. Aug.2017 I was under the impession that either io sono or sono were correct but Italians will just use sono because it is easier. In Spanish you could say yo soy but soy is sufficient.
Sometimes Duolingo falsely marks correct responses wrong. If that happens again, flag it and select "My answer should have been accepted" (after double-checking you didn't make another error that would invalidate it).
- 1309
Thank you. If I come across it again, I will flag this. However, whether I get it right or wrong in Duolingo does not concern me as much as learning correctly.
I understand that, but reporting errors helps the course contributors to improve things overall.
To expand on what roman2095 said, e vs ed is comparable to a vs an in English.
Also, e/ed means and, while è means is. The grave accent makes all the difference.
You only use "ed" when the next word starts with a vowel as in "ed io" otherwise it would be "e sono". Also it would be "Lei è" instead of "Lei e"
What is "grande" not acceptable? I heard using "vecchio" could be a bit rude, so "grande" is an acceptable euphemism.
The rule in Italian for "e" vs "ed" ("and") is very much like the rule in English for "a" vs "an". If the next word starts with a consonant sound, you use "e". If the next word starts with a vowel sound, you use "ed".
Why Is "Io" Necessary? Doesn't "Vecchio" Provide The Information That It's "Io" And Not "Loro" By Being Singular?
